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Scotland Magazine section Roddy Martine's WorldEnd of year cheerLiving in the Northern Hemisphere, we have all come to accept that the days and nights at either end of the year are long and cold and very dark. And that, of course, is why we Scots have earned ourselves such a reputation for self-reliance when it comes to entertaining ourselves. Just think of the... By Roddy Martine from Issue 36 published on 14/12/2007 Two for oneRoddy Martine looks at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Dean Gallery, two venues close enough to be counted as one and the same. Up until 1984, Scotland’s national collection of modern art was housed in the elegant Inverleith House, at the heart of Edinburgh’s Royal Botanical Gardens. The setting, surrounded by old trees and rhododendrons, was glorious, but as the collection grew in keeping with the times, it became evident t... By Roddy Martine from Issue 36 published on 14/12/2007 Life on LewisAt this time of year I am usually to be found on the island of Lewis, where I annually meet up with a group of old friends in a stalking lodge, far from the madding crowd. As the temperature drops, heralding the end of yet another summer, there is something profoundly reassuring about being at the ... By Roddy Martine from Issue 35 published on 15/11/2007 The power of fictionAs you read this, I will be preparing to give a talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. I’m in good company this year with Norman Mailer, Germain Greer, ANWilson, Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin. For all of us who earn our living by the pen, or should I say word processor, it provid... By Roddy Martine from Issue 34 published on 30/08/2007 ChangesChange is part of life, and this year a lot of change is taking place in Scotland. Following the May elections for the Scottish Parliament, we have a new First Minister in the person of the enigmatic Alex Salmond; a new Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, Conservative MSP for Galloway and Nithsdale, ... By Roddy Martine from Issue 33 published on 22/06/2007 Family tiesVisitScotland, the Scottish government agency which promotes Scotland as a tourist destination throughout the world has, in recent years, launched a series of genealogy initiatives aimed at expatriate Scots, in particular its website: ancestralscotland.com. This year, of course, has been billed as ... By Roddy Martine from Issue 32 published on 13/04/2007 Thriving abroadIt was the combination of a book launch, and meeting up with Eddie Tait, who runs the website www.scotsinlondon.com, that got me thinking about just how well the Scottish diaspora (I dislike that word intensely, but it appears to fit the current obsession with meaningless media jargon) is doing nowa... By Roddy Martine from Issue 31 published on 16/02/2007 A happy unionLet me first emphasise that there is no political agenda in my writing this, but it recently occurred to me, as I was listening to a speech from Alec Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party, that the year 2007 is a very significant milestone for Scotland. Why? Because on the May 1, 2007 i... By Roddy Martine from Issue 30 published on 01/12/2006 An extraordinary and enderrated heroI now realise that I have known Professor Richard Demarco OBE for more than 40 years, a startling thought which came to mind when I attended his 76th birthday party at Fingask Castle, a 16th century Jacobite stronghold located off the road between Perth and Dundee. It was an unforgettable occasion ... By Roddy Martine from Issue 28 published on 20/09/2006 A real chance to become part of historyOne notable benefit of Tartan Week in New York, so far as I am concerned, is that it provides those of us who tend to be preoccupied with whatever we are doing back home with an opportunity to get to know one another better. Under such circumstances, I often find out far more about what is happenin... By Roddy Martine from Issue 27 published on 09/06/2006 Caledon’s success is music to the earsIhave just returned from Germany where on two successive nights I witnessed 550 Berliners giving a standing ovation to three kilted Scotsmen who had been singing a cross-section of those wonderful and traditional Scottish songs which many Scots here in Scotland tend to dismiss as obsolete. Having b... By Roddy Martine from Issue 26 published on 21/04/2006 Fondest memories of a legendary HighlanderHoliday brochures wax lyrical about locations and sunsets, but there is nothing to compete with first-hand memory. That is why I was so very delighted to discover that an anthology of the essays of Seton Gordon has been compiled. Gordon was, one of those legendary Scotsmen of the last century, and,... By Roddy Martine from Issue 25 published on 17/02/2006 Scotland’smaritime legacyThe exhibition Books on Ice: the British and American Literature on Polar Exploration which was due to be held at the Grolier Club in New York City over Christmas and New Year marks the end of an impressive series of initiatives to commemorate the United Kingdom as a sea-faring nation. SeaBritain 2... By Roddy Martine from Issue 24 published on 05/01/2006 Wallace, Bruce and political correctnessSeven hundred years ago, on August 23, Sir William Wallace, the Scottish resistance leader, was sentenced to death in London. Thereafter, he was hung, drawn and quartered, and his body parts despatched for display in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth. Wallace's principal opponent, the psychopa... By Roddy Martine from Issue 23 published on 14/10/2005 The world’s eyes on EdinburghThis has been an eventful summer for Scotland, what with the G8 Summit at Gleneagles Hotel and the accompanying demonstrations in Edinburgh, Stirling and Auchterarder. No sooner had the streets of Scotland's capital begun to calm down again than the Edinburgh Festival was upon us, reminding me of t... By Roddy Martine from Issue 22 published on 10/08/2005 Where the past is in touching distanceSummer being on its way, before the season of midges, I took a friend to visit Appin, in Argyll. We were staying, as it chanced, on Isle of Eriska, until recently the fiefdom of Robin Buchanan-Smith, a retired Church of Scotland chaplain to St Andrews University. Robin had come upon this mini-islan... By Roddy Martine from Issue 21 published on 10/07/2005 Politics alive and well in ScotlandWith the United Kingdom in the grips of General Election fever, I am not at all surprised that some of my trans-Atlantic and pan-European friends remain baffled by the defining differences between our Scottish and United Kingdom parliaments. I can assure them that there are many of us here in Scotla... By Roddy Martine from Issue 20 published on 10/04/2005 Future of Scotland is blowing in the windBack in 1975, when I was editor of a Scottish business journal, I interviewed Stephen Salter of the department of mechanical engineering at Edinburgh University. Back in 1975, when I was editor of a Scottish business journal, I interviewed Stephen Salter of the department of mechanical engineering at Edinburgh University. Professor Salter had recently developed a floating ‘duck’ which converted wave movement into electricity. The man was a genius and I hav... By Roddy Martine from Issue 19 published on 20/3/2005 The Spirit of Scotland at its very bestRoddy Martine talks... As a cradle for the visual arts and treasure trove of antiquities, Scotland looks more impressive than ever nowadays. First there was the opening in July of the spectacular playfair extension to the National Galleries of Scotland on the mound, in Edinburgh. And next we have the breathtaking extensio... By Roddy Martine from Issue 18 published on 8/1/2005 On the face of it, it's chiefly good newsRoddy Marting talks... There have been two exciting developments concerning the friendly face of Scotland. The first is that Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell has personally appointed Edinburgh's former Lord Provost Eric Milligan to become Scotland's Welcome Tsar; the second is that VisitScotland, Scotland's touris... By Roddy Martine from Issue 17 published on 29/11/2004 Moving forward in the HighlandsRoddy Martine talks... THERE were 20 of us around the table at the Ballachulish Hotel in Lochaber. It was an eclectic mix which included five Highland councillors, among them Dr Michael Foxley, vice-convenor of Highland Council. Others present were: historian Iain Thornber, deputy lord lieutenant of Inverness-shire and tr... By Roddy Martine from Issue 16 published on 15/9/2004 My kinda town...Roddy Martin talks... So what were my New York Moments during Tartan Week 2004? Sky scrapers, tartan taxi cabs, diminutive Highland dancers, Scotty dogs wearing tartan waistcoats, and Gutty Slippers, a wacky bagpipe and drums rock band from Glasgow. Then there was the Tartan Day Parade down 6th Avenue with Bob Currie of... By Roddy Martine from Issue 15 published on 18/7/2004 Living here isn't quite murderRoddy Martine talks... I have a sister who lives in a quiet mews in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town and who was recently appalled when a journalist turned up on her doorstep to ask her if she knew where the murder had taken place. “What murder?” she asked anxiously. “The one in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus book,” he r... By Roddy Martine from Issue 14 published on 2/5/2004 A legacy that grows with each yearRoddy Martine talks... Amatter of days before the New Year bells, I received an urgent e-mail from Manhattan. Liz Smith, columnist on the New York Post, was asking for a translation for “pint-stowp” and “a right gude willie waught”, both expression’s to be found in Robert Burn’s immortal Auld Lang Syne. It started me thin... By Roddy Martine from Issue 13 published on 25/3/2004 Nothing quite like honourable defeatRoddy Martine talks... MOMENTOUS events are frequently shaped by defeat, not victory. The aftermath of tragedy creates new beginnings. Such a new beginning took place following the two failed Jacobite Uprisings of the 18th century, and the Highland Clearances that followed them. Ask yourself. Where would America, Canada,... By Roddy Martine from Issue 12 published on 19/1/2004 Getting to grips with GaelicRoddy Matine talks... With no disrespect to Scotland Magazine’s readership, I wonder how many of you are aware just how important a month October is for Highlanders? Or should I say for Gaels? The thought occurs to me because two years ago, when I was in the town of Stornoway on Lewis, I was conscious of a large number ... By Roddy Martine from Issue 11 published on 17/11/2003 Festival still leads the wayRoddy Martine talks... I have had an involvement with the Edinburgh International Festival since I was a teenager, except that in those days it was not quite such a large affair. Then it was almost entirely about classical music and drama, with a bit of visual art thrown in. Today there are really eight Edinburgh festiva... By Roddy Martine from Issue 10 published on 5/9/2003 A step forwardRoddy Martine talks... At the beginning of May, the Scottish electorate went to the polls to choose the political make-up of its Edinburgh-based parliament for the second time since its revival in 1999. As had been predicted, there was a low turnout, but nevertheless, Jack McConnell, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, w... By Roddy Martine from Issue 9 published on 20/7/2003 The Wild, Celtic WestRoddy Martine talks... Two books have recently caught my attention. The first, Adventures and Exiles by Marjory Harper (Profile Books), argues that Scots emigration during the 18th and 19th centuries was prompted not by necessity, but by the prospect of self-improvement and personal gain. The other book, Plaids & Bandanas... By Roddy Martine from Issue 8 published on 17/5/2003 Finding Scotland Down UnderRoddy Martine talks... At the end of last year I was fortunate enough to travel down under for Sydney Scottish Week, where I was the guest of the Scottish-Australian Heritage Council. In 2002 it was a particularly auspicious occasion since the council was celebrating its 21st year. Founded by a group of interested Austra... By Roddy Martine from Issue 7 published on 7/3/2003 Bigger than MadonnaRoddy Martine talks... Bigger than Madonna My discovery of ceilidh music took place when I was seven years old and living in the south of England. I was watching one of those ‘teuchter’ Hogmanay television programmes which during the ‘60s and ‘70s so profoundly influenced Scottish popular culture at home and abroad. Aged ... By Roddy Martine from Issue 6 published on 6/2/2003 History todayRoddy Martine talks... It is curious how age catches up on you. As a schoolboy, I simply loathed being dragged off on weekend excursions to explore a dusty old church or poke around a ruined castle in that flat expanse of agricultural landscape that runs inland from Dunbar and across to the Lammermuirs. I could never unde... By Roddy Martine from Issue 5 published on 4/11/2002 Festive seasonI was at an American-Scottish gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, when an attractive young lady wearing a skirt, waistcoat and bonnet in the Buchanan tartan approached me and asked if I could tell her about the Scottish dancing and piping events at the Edinburgh Festival. I hesitated. “The Edinburgh Fe... By Roddy Martine from Issue 4 published on 9/9/2002 Border patrolIn Scotland it is never possible to escape the past. At every turn it confronts you and although some of our more progressive politicians would happily wipe the slate clean and start again, the lessons learned by our ancestors have a funny way of coming back to haunt us. That is why much of what ta... By Roddy Martine from Issue 3 published on 5/7/2002 Branding ironyRoddy Talks... One of Scotland’s paradoxical problems, post-political devolution in the UK, has been to reconcile its future with its past. While conscious of being an ‘old country’ with a strong sense of identity, our Scottish parliament is understandably anxious to be seen as ‘young’ and progressive, embracing t... By Roddy Martine from Issue 2 published on 5/6/2002 Ancestral homeThere is a saying in Scotland that it costs you nothing to find out who your ancestors are, but it costs a fortune to keep it quiet. That may be true, but Scotland is a small country with under five million inhabitants and if there are any skeletons in the closet, the likelihood is everybody already... By Roddy Martine from Issue 1 published on 5/3/2002 |  | ||||||||||||
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