Your carolan’s blythe, bricht bird i the blackthorn bou,
this braw Voar morn, wi trill eftir spirlan trill,
tho you only ken the warld as it liggs the nou,
an nocht but a glisk concerns your chatteran bill…
—Maurice Lindsay, “On Hearin a Merle Singan (Arbroath Day, April 6th, 1946)”
published in A KIST O SKINKLAN THINGS (ASL, 2017)
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/
“Most works of mountaineering literature have been written by men, and most male mountaineers are focused on the summit… But to aim for the highest point is not the only way to climb a mountain, nor is a narrative of siege and assault the only way to write about one.”
—Robert Macfarlane on the beauty & urgency of Nan Shepherd’s THE LIVING MOUNTAIN
https://lithub.com/robert-macfarlane-on-the-beauty-and-urgency-of-nan-shepherds-the-living-mountain/
Battling #InfectiousDiseases in the #20thCentury: The Impact of #Vaccines
The number of infected people, measured over 70-some years and across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, generally declined after vaccines were introduced.
The heat maps show number of cases per 100,000 people.
https://graphics.wsj.com/infectious-diseases-and-vaccines/
https://archive.ph/fTcGF
George MacDonald Fraser on Desert Island Discs in 2001 – available to listen to on BBC Sounds
5/5
Ayont the linn; ayont the linn,
Whaur gowdan wags the gorse,
A gowk gaed cryin’: “Come ye in:
I’ve fairins in my purse…”
—William Soutar, “The Gowk”
in Collected Published Poetry, @tippermuirbooks.bsky.social 2024
April Fool’s Day is Huntigowk Day in Scotland (“gowk” is a cuckoo &, by extension, a foolish person)
https://tippermuirbooks.co.uk/product/william-soutar-collected-works-vols-1-2/
“For if we do find answers for how to brave the present, with its floods and fires, and still keep the faith, they won’t come from us alone. They will come from the strength that results from a tightened weave, story after story, between ourselves and our places.”
—from Jenny Odell’s Afterword to the US edition of Nan Shepherd’s THE LIVING MOUNTAIN, published in 2025 by Scribner
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/living-moutain-jenny-odell-essay/
Three Native American Blackfoot Chiefs, Montana 1900 Edward S Curtis
#20thCentury, #Blackfoot, #EdwardS.Curtis, #Horses, #Indigenous, #Montana, #Native
Vintage ◦ Classic ◦ Historical | Art ◦ Design ◦ Inspiration | Restored ◦ Enhanced ◦ Remixed
Prints, T-Shirts, Stickers, & More by @rocketshipretro via RedBubble → https://bigplanetprints.com/go/57Wjdu
Clothilde & Alexandre Sakharoff 1921 George Barbier
#20thCentury, #AlexanderSakharoff, #ClotildevonderPlanitz, #Dance, #Dancers, #Modern, #Sakharov
Vintage ◦ Classic ◦ Historical | Art ◦ Design ◦ Inspiration | Restored ◦ Enhanced ◦ Remixed
Prints, T-Shirts, Stickers, & More by @rocketshipretro via RedBubble → https://bigplanetprints.com/go/22esbG
“This is a perfect, hearty, oat-y bread with a lovely ginger flavor. It’s delicious and moist when fresh, but still excellent toasted and buttered the next day”
The History in the Making website shares F. Marian McNeill’s recipe for Broonie – a traditional oatmeal gingerbread from Orkney
4/4
NEW – Birlinn has just published a new edition of F. Marian McNeill’s A SCOTS KITCHEN, edited & introduced by Catherine Brown & illustrated by Iain McIntosh
3/4
“Florence Marian McNeill had curated and created a book that had become an iconic, cultural bequest at a personal family level”
—Amanda Edmiston explores the legacy of F. Marian McNeill’s classic cookbook THE SCOTS KITCHEN
2/4
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2024/11/dreaming-bread-and-flourishing-folklore/
Florence Marian McNeill (1885–1973) was born #OTD, 26 March. A notable figure in Scotland’s 20th-century literary renaissance, she wrote on suffrage, politics, food, heritage, & folklore – including the recipe and food-heritage book THE SCOTS KITCHEN, and THE SILVER BOUGH, a 4-volume study of Scottish festivals & folk-belief
1/4
https://www.scottishwomenwritersontheweb.net/writers-a-to-z/florence-marian-mcneill
A filth of leaves, she said, a froth, she said
Of sudsy flowers, and there’s your mawkish Spring.
Oh, barebone tree, what has it done to you?
Black field, you’re gone but for remembering…
—Norman MacCaig, “Green stain”
published in THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Polygon, 2009)
Alasdair Maclean’s NIGHT FALLS ON ARDNAMURCHAN (1984) was his only full-length prose work. Hilary Mantel called it
“…a book like an animated shipping forecast… You hear the ocean and the voice of a salt-laden gale in this sharp, thoughtful, eloquent memoir, which is specific yet not parochial, romantic, reflective, and yet grittily acquainted with the realities of life on the margin.”
https://birlinn.co.uk/product/night-falls-on-ardnamurchan-2/
Sea and sky. Earth-bound as I am
I’ve never yet been able to decide
which one I like best…
—Alasdair Maclean, “Sea and Sky”
Published in IN THE WILDERNESS (Gollancz, 1973)
Alasdair Maclean (1926–1994) was born #OTD, 16 March.
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/alasdair-maclean/
Amrita Sher-Gil
Camels
1941
---
#AmritaSherGil #Indianart #20thcentury #art #painting
Historic Photos of the Cats’ Meat Men in Victorian London https://petapixel.com/2025/03/14/historic-photos-of-the-cats-meat-men-in-victorian-london/ #historicalfriday #historicalphotos #victorianera #19thcentury #20thcentury #catsmeatmen #nostalgia #victorian #Features #london #pets
“By the time [Willa Muir] met Edwin at a mutual friend’s house in Glasgow, she was a lecturer in English, psychology and education and vice-principal of Gipsy Hill Teacher Training College in London…”
Robert Crawford Robert Crawford reviews Margery Palmer McCulloch’s Edwin & Willa Muir: A Literary Marriage, & Willa Muir’s The Usurpers, in the London Review of Books
5/5
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n18/robert-crawford/peerie-breeks
“The sociological insights of ‘Mrs Muttoe and the Top Storey’ are sharpened by their relevance to Britain’s pandemic response… Muir’s novel matches what current social scientists describe as ‘role overload’ in the ‘role strain theory’.”
—Re-Evaluating Willa Muir’s ‘Mrs Muttoe & the Top Storey’ in Light of COVID-19 Labour Disparities
Emily Pickard, SCOTTISH LITERRY REVIEW 14/1 (2022)
4/5
“Most of the translation, especially Kafka, has been done by ME. Edwin only helped. And every time Edwin was referred to as THE translator, I was too proud to say anything; […] I am left without a shred of literary reputation”
—Willa Muir
Listen to the Dead Ladies Show podcast on Willa Muir
3/5
https://deadladiesshow.com/2020/06/17/podcast-34-willa-muir/
