Tag Archives: James Robertson

The stories we tell

Here is a story. Fifteen years ago, Catherine Lockerbie, then the literary editor of The Scotsman, was appointed director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. For several years I had regularly written book reviews for her. We had also sat … Continue reading

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Be prepared

It’s nearly book festival time again – by which I mean the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Every August, Charlotte Square Gardens sprout canvas and are transformed into a kind of intellectual carnival of some 800 events that seem between them … Continue reading

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Three tales

Here are three tales. The first: I’m currently reading Robert Macfarlane’s best-seller, The Old Ways. It’s a hard book to describe but essentially it sets out his thoughts on how we shape landscape and it shapes us, as he follows … Continue reading

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Sticky labels

How diminished we are by the labels that people attach to us or we attach to ourselves. And how forcefully that has been brought home to me during the referendum campaign. Nationalist, Unionist. Yes, No. Scottish, English. None of us … Continue reading

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