And reading it in GMF sends a shudder through the mind. The Steel Bonnets is one of the great works of Scottish imaginative (not imaginary) history

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, George MacDonald Fraser Sue Lawley's castaway is writer George MacDonald Fraser

George MacDonald Fraser on Desert Island Discs in 2001 – available on BBC Sounds
6/6
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

At one moment when President Richard Nixon was taking part in his inauguration ceremony, he appeared flanked by Lyndon Johnson and Billy Graham. To anyone familiar with Border history it was one of those historical coincidences which send a little shudder through the mind: in that moment, thousands of miles and centuries in time away from the Debateable Land, the threads came together again; the descendants of three notable Anglo-Scottish Border tribes-families who lived and fought within a few miles of each other on the West Marches in Queen Elizabeth's time were standing side by side, and it took very little effort of the imagination to replace the custom-made suits with leather jacks or backs-and-breasts. Only a political commentator would be tactless enough to pursue the resemblance to Border reivers beyond the physical, but there the similarity is strong. Lyndon Johnson's is a face and figure that everyone in Dumfriesshire knows; the lined, leathery Northern head and rangy, rather loose-jointed frame belong to one of the commonest Border types. The only mystery is when the "" which distinguishes Border Johnstones from the others of the name was dropped from his surname. Billy Graham has frequently advertised his Scottishness, perhaps a little thoughtlessly, since there are more Grahams on the southern side of the line than on the northern, but again, the face is familiar. Richard Nixon, however, is the perfect example. The blunt, heavy features, the dark complexion, the burly body, and the whole air of dour hardness are as typical of the Anglo-Scottish frontier as the Roman Wall. Take thirty years off his age and you could put him straight into the front row of the Hawick scrum and hope to keep out of his way. It is difficult to think of any face that would fit better under a steel bonnet.

Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, & Billy Graham at Nixon’s inauguration, 20 January 1969. Photo: William C. Beall, Washington Daily News. Courtesy of the DC Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post. Billy Graham stands at a podium, reading a text. His left hand grips the podium and his right is raised slightly in front of him, his hand clenched into a fist. Richard Nixon looks over Graham's right shoulder. Lyndon Johnson stands to Nixon's right. Other figures in formal dress stand, some with bowed heads.

“At one moment when President Richard Nixon was taking part in his inauguration ceremony, he appeared flanked by Lyndon Johnson & Billy Graham… it was one of those historical coincidences which send a little shudder through the mind”

George MacDonald Fraser, THE STEEL BONNETS (1971)
#history 💙📚
4/6

Not A Serious Writer Novelist Michael Jecks investigates the historical realism of George MacDonald Fraser. Harry Flashman is a fictional character borrowed from a novel who purports to be telling the truth about real, hi...

George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008) – author, historian, journalist, screenwriter – was born #OTD, 2 April, 1925. @michaeljecksauthor.bsky.social discusses GMF’s “dedication to strongly researched stories, built firmly on a bedrock of historical fact”
🎂🧵
💙📚
1/6
www.rlf.org.uk/showcase/not...

Alastair Reid • Mysteries of Translation YouTube video by Wolf Humanities Center

Alastair Reid translated many Latin American writers, in particular the #poetry of Borges & Neruda. In this talk from 2009, he explores the hazards & occasional felicities of #translation, focusing on the influence of Borges, & of the nature of a bilingual reality
3/4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpU2...

Looking forward to Prof C!

Loved it. Including the sound of the poetry I didn't understand! When I get to my Erskine moment, I'd really appreciate the chance to talk to you about him...

👏👏You sure have a USP, Paul! It was a fine mix of narrative, analysis and - just the right amount of - poetry. Your interviewing style kept up pace and variety and Petra is a captivating subject. Thomson came alive and Erskine illuminated the Gaelic prehistory of the national movement. What's next?

"Skeleton of the future" shurely?

Red granite and black diorite, with the blue

Of the labradorite crystals gleaming like precious stones

In the light reflected from the snow; and behind them

The eternal lightning of Lenin's bones.

"Skeleton of the future" shurely?

Red granite and black diorite, with the blue

Of the labradorite crystals gleaming like precious stones

In the light reflected from the snow; and behind them

The eternal lightning of Lenin's bones.

Though not yet available…

Wonderful - unique - conversation between a French scholar-poet who writes in Scots and a Czech scholar-poet who writes in Gaelic. Paul and Petra provide a fresh European perspective on c20th Scotland, with beautiful recordings of Derick Thomson reading his poetry, and Petra hers

Allan Massie obituary: celebrated writer who defied fashion Perhaps the finest Scottish novelist of the postwar era, who won fame across Europe but who was less favoured by the literary establishment north of the border

www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

This is the first thing that has really made me laugh on this site

My review of Modern Irish and Scottish Literature by @richardalanbarlow.bsky.social is now published by @mfsjournal.bsky.social.

Richard's book is definitely worth a read if you are interested in modern Scottish and/or Irish literature, revivalism, and modernism.

muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

In praise of useless idiots

Phew!

Oh

What was the answer?

R.S. Thomas was a 20th c Welsh poet & Anglican priest whose most famous poem, The White Tiger, uses the analogy of a tiger trapped in a cage for human perception of the divine-- "agonizing over immensities that will not return."

Aw, shucks!

Richard Leonard (17.27.30) produces the most impressive MacDiarmidian rhetoric in this Holyrood motion. He repeats the myth that MacD was expelled from the National Party for being a communist but gets the splendidly mad tenor of the politics just right

www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/memb...

Ewan Morrison on Elon Musk, brain implants and the danger of tech bros The novelist discusses his latest book and reveals his fears of the darker side of technology being pursued by billionaires such as the Space X chief

Time for @mrewanmorrison.bsky.social to be recognised as the most prescient writer working in Scotland today

www.thetimes.com/article/4048...

God's own county

God's own county

Is theft of stolen property still theft? AI copyright issues blown open. Students of TS Eliot's borrowing-stealing audit of major writers take note. For @asls.org.uk and other Scotlit folk, Hugh MacDiarmid is surely the pre-eminant (con-?) artist of the "perfect" (and other kinds of) poem

The Trouble with Elon I didn’t set out to become an enemy of the world’s richest man, but I seem to have managed it all the same.

This is compelling from Sam Harris

open.substack.com/pub/samharri...

The dawn of the anti-woke era Having rejected the Democrats’ progressivist dogma, the American electorate is undergoing a social and demographic revolution.

The dawn of the anti-woke era - www.newstatesman.com/internationa...

Watch out for throat lumps!

I’m sure you’d agree @ginorgym.bsky.social