WHAT’S THE STORY?
A NEW book celebrating Edinburgh in all its guises has been produced by two of Scotland’s leading artistic lights, Allan Wright and Gerda Stevenson. Described by one reviewer as “stunning”, the book is entitled simply Edinburgh. It was formally launched last night at the Edinburgh Bookshop in Bruntsfield Place.
With 87 photographs by Wright and 22 new poems by Stevenson, the book shows many aspects of Edinburgh – ancient and modern, local and international, privileged and disenfranchised, dazzlingly glamorous and down-at-heel.
WHO ARE THE AUTHORS?
THE book has been a labour of love for both Wright and Stevenson.
The Braveheart actress is an award-winning writer, director and singer-songwriter whose acting career on stage and screen is now into its fifth decade.
Stevenson has recently completed several collections of poems, with If This Were Real (Smokestack Books) published in an Italian translation, Se Questo Fosse Vero, by Edizioni Ensemble of Rome. She is particularly known for Quines: Poems in tribute to women of Scotland (Luath Press), and earlier this year published Inside & Out: The Art of Christian Small (Scotland Street Press) for which she wrote a biographical introduction and poems.
Wright is an award-winning, professional landscape photographer with a prolific output of published material since the 1980s. His work has featured in a catalogue of 17 books to date, reflecting a lifetime spent journeying and adventuring all over his native Scotland as well as much further afield. On returning home to Scotland earlier this year he published Vintage Tractors and Scotland’s Islands.
A SAMPLE OF THE POETRY PLEASE?
THIS exclusive extract is from Edinburgh Castle:
If iver there wis a castle that cried Gie’s Peace!
It’s me. See the fechts I’ve tholed, the stooshies, the wars,
naethin but endless bluid and glaur
for hunners o years – I’m the place maist attackit
in the hale o these isles, ma was hackit
and brunt, till ilka dunt hus duin in ma heid.
WHAT ARE THE AUTHORS SAYING ABOUT THEIR BOOK?
ALLAN Wright: “My initial concept was to produce a comparatively modest format, aimed at the photographically conscious visitor.
“By good fortune, however, in engaging with Gerda as co-author, the scope and spirit of the work has been widened and deepened. Her poems interact with my images, penetrating the veneer that can often dominate the city. All those prestigious castings and fine masonry may, collectively, have created one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, but there were struggles in its making, and so often a human price was paid.”
Gerda Stevenson: “This has been a fascinating and welcome collaboration – an opportunity to reacquaint myself with my beloved home city, and its many contradictions. I’ve relished both the process of responding to Allan vibrant images and the way in which the project unexpectedly developed: finding myself writing additional poems about aspects of the city which Allan then went out to photograph.”
WHAT ARE OTHERS SAYING?
RICHARD Holloway, the former Episcopalian Bishop of Edinburgh said the book was “a stunning tribute to that magnificent old hypocrite, the city of Edinburgh”.
He added: “The combination of Allan Wright’s gorgeous photography and Gerda Stevenson’s introduction and searing poetry hints the time may be near when Scotland’s capital of easy virtue will become an honest and independent woman again.”
National columnist Lesley Riddoch said: “Fabulous, intimate portrait of Edinburgh in this new book with poems by Gerda Stevenson and matching images by photographer Allan Wright. This is not the tourist’s view nor an uncritical, gushing tribute. Perceptive, spirited and loving.”
WHAT DO THE PUBLISHERS SAY?
“THIS compelling book will resonate with residents from all over the city as well as with the millions of visitors who throng the streets, cafes and bars. Edinburgh tells a powerful story with breadth, depth, wit and humour, and with a surprisingly light touch.”
AND THE NATIONAL?
ALLAN Wright paints pictures with his camera, Gerda Stevenson is a Yes-supporting cultural leader who is really hitting her stride as a poet, and Edinburgh has never looked better or been better described.
The book is brilliant. Buy it.
Edinburgh is published by Allan Wright Photographic/ Lomond Books Ltd, paperback priced £15.
It will be in major bookshops and online at www.scottishbookstore.com, www.amazon.com and
www.allanwrightphoto.com
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here