Beaujolais by Paul Rudge, Reubens Wine Store, Dunfermline, Fife Geographically, Beaujolais is part of Burgundy, but from the wine point of view there seems little logic in the association between the Côte d`Or and the pretty, hilly, granite band of Beaujolais vineyards that run along the west bank of the Saone towards Lyon. With annual production sitting at 133 million bottles you’d think the region would be dominated by factory
Adam Smith, Mary Somerville and Gordon Brown are not the only bright sparks to have hailed from Kirkcaldy. Admired by Sir Walter Scott, whom she knew, Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain, Marjory Fleming was a child prodigy poet born in the town on 15 January 1803, the third child of accountant James Fleming and his wife Isabella. Isabella was a surgeon’s daughter and, as a gifted intellectual herself, Marjory’s
In the modest seaside town of Burntisland in Fife in the early 1780s lived a girl who would become the pre-eminent thinker in science and mathematics of her day, known and feted throughout Europe. Eventually a school, an Oxford College, an island, even a crater on the moon would all be named for her. But first Mary Somerville had to negotiate her way through a society that did not expect
One of the finest artists ever to come out of Dunfermline, renowned illustrator Jonny Hannah has an impressive new book out. Greetings from Darktown tells of a mysterious coastal town, not found on any map, peopled by pin-up girls, jazz artists and tattooed sailors. Darktown is home to the Unquiet Grave junk emporium; the Mermaid Café where Woody Guthrie still plays each week; McVouty’s vintage clothes shop and a pier
Ann Oram trained at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA). After her post-graduate year and Andrew Grant Scholarship to France and Italy, Ann returned to ECA to lecture in the Painting school. Ann has spent many years living and working abroad and the inspiration she gets from her travels helps to keep her work fresh and vibrant. During the 1980s, she spent many years living in southern Spain and, more recently,
Gregory Burke is originally from Rosyth near Dunfermline. Burke’s first play was Gagarin Way, set in the factories of West Fife. Black Watch, for the national Theatre of Scotland, debuted at in 2006 and met with critical acclaim. It has since been performed throughout Scotland and has toured in London, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Other works include Occy Eyes, The Straits, Unsecured, On Tour, Liar, Shellshocked and Hoors. More recently, Burke wrote the screenplay for the film 71, about a
Jennie Erdal is the author of Ghosting, a memoir of her childhood in Lochgelly and of being the long-serving ghostwriter of Naim Atallah, the publisher and owner of Quartet Books. She worked for him for 20 years, first as a translator of Russian novels, then as a commissioning editor and finally as unacknowledged ghostwriter. Ghosting was chosen as a BBC Book of the Week and was shortlisted for the Saltire Scoiety First Book Award and for the JR Ackerley
Joe Corrie was born in 1894 in Slamannan near Falkirk. A few years later his family moved to Cardenden in Fife. He left school at 14 in 1908 to work in the local pits and during the First World War he worked at a colliery in Ayrshire. On his return to Cardenden in 1918 he began writing verse and it wasn’t until the twenties that he began working on plays.
Former headteacher Christina Banach is from Lochgelly. Her debut novel Minty is published by Three Hares Publishing, based in London. Fife features heavily in her book, in particular Ruby Bay in Elie. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the Society of Authors, Christina is working on her next book – a contemporary ghost story-come-psychological thriller, set mainly in Glencoe. www.christinabanach.com
Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America’s celebrated Edgar Award for ‘Resurrection Men’. He has also been shortlisted for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the USA, and won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix