A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh by Alexander McCall Smith
| A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh by Alexander McCall Smith | |
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| Category: Travel | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A personal look at the Edinburgh which the tourists so rarely see as well as some of the more well-known landmarks. A sumptous delight of a book. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 224 | Date: October 2014 |
| Publisher: Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1902419862 | |
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It might be simplest if I begin by telling you what this book is not. It's not a book of beautiful photographs (with some supporting text) of the places you'll almost certainly want to visit if you're visiting Edinburgh as a tourist. If that's what you want then there are dozens of such books available all over the city at a fraction of the cost of A Work of Beauty. This might have the look of a coffee table book (and it would certainly look impressive there) but it has a lot more depth and interest than you might expect. This is a book of Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh, the city he walks around every day, constantly seeing something new, something else with a story to tell.
The images - some never published before - are drawn from the archives of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and from these McCall Smith tells his own story of the city he loves. He first lived in Edinburgh as a student (he was born in what was then Rhodesia), so will remember many of the locations as we see them in the book. Others, though, date from an earlier age, many are of historic monuments and buildings but the most intriguing ones for me are of the seemingly insignificant, the seldom remarked buildings.There's one from about 1950, almost as you open the book, showing Carlton Road, looking up to Waterloo Place and it's particularly interesting because of the way the light comes in at such an acute angle - as it says, Edinburgh would be an entirely different city if the sun was always directly overhead. Then there are the pictures overleaf of bell pulls in Marchmont, taken in 2014, which record names of occupants who have long moved on.
There are copies of historical documents here too, such as James Craig's plan of the New Town of Edinburgh, dated 1767. We should all be grateful that George III approved the plan as even a cursory glance will tell you that it still stands today much as it was designed all those years ago. In fact you'll find a plan of the new town dated 1831 and an aerial view of the same area from 1988 - and you could play a demanding game of 'spot the difference'. But going back a hundred and twenty years there's a facsimile of James Gordon of Rothiemay's 'Bird's Eye View of Edinburgh' and once again the old town is much as it remains today, but I'll confess to preferring the view of Edinburgh in about 1690 by the Dutch artist John Slezer.
McCall Smith looks at the city from various viewpoints (in a literary, rather than a geographical sense) and covers literature, learning, trades and professions, science and philosophy. So far I've concentrated on the images - not least because it would be possible to go through the book and get great pleasure from these alone without reading a word of McCall Smith's accompanying text, but this would be a mistake as you would miss some concise, erudite, witty and interesting writing. I loved his idea of the constancy, the timelessness of the city - that it's simply borrowed by its current inhabitants.
It's a book to pore over and study, if perhaps a little heavy to hold for any length of time. You'll find yourself studying pictures and plans, flipping back and forth as you read the text. It's a book to treasure and return to time and time again. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
If your taste runs to something English we can recommend Engel's England: Thirty-nine counties, one capital and one man by Matthew Engel. For another sumptuous book, have a look at Sea Monsters: The Lore and Legacy of Olaus Magnus's Marine Map by Joseph Nigg.
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You can read more book reviews or buy A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh by Alexander McCall Smith at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy A Work of Beauty: Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh by Alexander McCall Smith at Amazon.com.
