The great Edinburgh International Festival is almost upon us again. Time to pour over those brochures and raid the piggy bank. Being within hailing distance of everything, we natives can get a bit blasé about events that other folk travel half way round the world to attend, but this year I booked a few performances [...]
Atul Gawande is a gifted surgeon and best selling author. No ordinary man, you might think. And yet, in his book, Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, he concludes that his place in the world, like everyone else’s, is inevitably small. Compared with the people who plan and execute the eradication of polio from southern [...]
Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Heard of him? Hmmm. Well, the name will elicit a groan from many a Scot who’s been forced to study his writings during their formative years. But growing up 500 miles away I had no knowledge of either the books or the author in my youth. Shame! Shame! I hear you cry. [...]
A friend of mine (now in her nineties) used to regularly cook drop scones (alias griddle pancakes) for our charity table at church. But sadly now the task is beyond her. Last week I visited her at home and to my astonishment, she handed me her precious griddle and her secret recipe. I told her [...]