Scottish Bookshopping

August 28, 2019 / Eleanor Jane / 6 Comments

I couldn’t leave Pitlochry without visiting the bookshops there. In fact, I doubt if I’ve ever been on holiday without buying a book!

My first stop was the Station Bookshop – opening off the main platform at the railway station. This was a lovely little warren of a shop with a huge mixture of titles. It is a charity bookshop so the books are donated but it had a great range and I found several books I wanted to buy – including a box set of PG Wodehouse which I would have loved but getting it home would have been tricky.

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In the end, I picked two lovely, old editions of Walter Scott – The Abbot and Kenilworth. They were both inscribed to the same person, although they were given by different people. I thought them a perfect souvenir of my trip.

I also visited Priory Books. I had been hoping to find an easy history of the Jacobite rebellions but everything was either very detailed or too simple. In the end I spied something entirely different – Fiesta for Wild One, a book in the Kit Hunter series by Peter Grey which I love.

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The tourist information office supplied me with a basic children’s history of Scotland which I found to have the perfect level of information for me. Then a few days later we made a brief stop in Aviemore and the Waterstones there had Jacobite Stories by Dane Love which was even better. I read it all the way home!

Reading Waverley in Scotland

August 21, 2019August 21, 2019 / Eleanor Jane / 2 Comments

I have carried Waverley around Scotland with me on two previous occassions without reading a word of it. I had the best of intentions but somehow I always wanted to read a different book which would be easier – who wants to work on holiday?

This time though, I was determined. Scotland was clearly the place to read it so read it I would. I made sure I wasn’t partway through any other books and started Waverley on the very first train. Within a few pages I knew that it was not going to be hard work after all.

Of course, I had to read it by the Scott Monument!

The only other Scott book I had read was Ivanhoe many years ago. I remember enjoying it but not much else and I had got it into my head that he would be difficult and rather slow reading. Instead, I was swept along by the story and I absolutely loved it.

I also found that it was genuinely funny. Who can resist a line like this in the last chapter?

This should have been a prefatory chapter, but for two reasons: First, that most novel-readers, as my own conscience reminds me, are apt to be guilty of the sin of omission respecting that same matter of prefaces.

I so rarely read prefaces!

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I am sorry I never read the book before but very glad I finally took the time to do so. Reading it in Perthshire was especially wonderful – a good deal of the book is set there so I could really picture it coming to life. It was perfect!

Outdoor Theatre Take Two

August 14, 2019 / Eleanor Jane / Leave a comment

What a difference a couple of days make! Two days after the Midsummer Night’s Dream performance I was back outside to see Heartbreak Production’s Private Lives.

We were in another beautiful location but this time we had steady, heavy rain for almost the entire show. It only really stopped right at the very end – the complete opposite of the last performance. We were very British though and hunkered down in our waterproofs to enjoy the show. I also copied the lady in front and kept my umbrella over my knees which worked brilliantly.

I had never seen Private Lives before and I didn’t really know the plot either. Except that a some point somebody would be wearing pyjamas!

I loved the play. We get so few opportunities to see real, proper plays that I leap at every chance I get and I revel in the intellectual experience. It was quite intellectual too – Private Lives is not very plot driven but is all about the conversation so you really have to listen. It was excellent.

The only things which jarred somewhat were the extra little scenes involving the hotel staff which the company had added in. I didn’t really understand what they were trying to achieve and I would rather have just had the play.

However, I still very much enjoyed myself and, as I said, it was wonderful to have the opportunity to see the play. The rain didn’t damp our spirits and, although it put us off eating much, our picnic became a lovely after theatre supper when we got home!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

August 7, 2019August 7, 2019 / Eleanor Jane / 1 Comment

Last night I went to an outdoor theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Immersion Theatre. I love the atmosphere of open air theatre so I was looking forward to it but was also very concerned that it would have to be moved indoors. It had rained for most of the morning and although it brightened up in the afternoon it was raining again when I left work. Luckily it had stopped by the time I got to the venue and they had decided to go ahead outside. They had set up inside as well though – just in case!

Outdoor theatre is not complete without a picnic!

We arrived nice and early which meant that we had excellent seats right at the front. The cast roamed through the audience chatting with us before the play started which was a lovely way to make us feel involved. Of course, me being me, I was worried about being called on for audience participation but it wasn’t a problem and I could relax and enjoy the show.

I was right in the middle of the action – this was the sleeping Hermia at the end of the interval.

Enjoy it I did too. It was an hilarious production and I haven’t laughed so much for quite some time. The actors in small travelling companies never cease to amaze me with their ability to play several parts at once – and be convincingly different characters. There were several impressively quick changes too!

By far the most dramatic moment though had nothing to do with the acting. Thisbe was in the middle of her death scene when, with absolutely no warning, the heavens opened and the rain just poured down. It was so loud! The poor actors were immediately drenched and we weren’t much better but dramatically speaking the timing just couldn’t have been better.

Sadly it wasn’t really possible to continue so we missed out on Puck’s epilogue but it was actually quite fitting to end with Theseus’ words, ‘No epilogue, I pray you; your play needs no excuse.’

This was us by the end – soaking wet but still reluctant to leave!

After that there was nothing to be done but go home, dry off and read the ending for myself.

I had the most fantastic evening. The play is almost at the end of its tour now but if Immersion Theatre are playing near you I would highly recommend going to see them. I will certainly be doing so if they are in this area again.