Burns enthusiasts every January celebrate the Birthday of Scotland’s national bard but it is doubtful if any mark it in such an elaborate manner as Bathgate spinning wheel maker John Stark did during Victorian times. Every year on 25th January, Starkie, as he was known in the old mining and weaving burgh, marked the birthday of his favourite poet by declaring Burns’ Day a personal holiday Read the rest of this entry »

I only began to understand my father when I found his diaries from the First World War. There were 52 pages of his diary, written in tiny script, with real ink.  Men were not encouraged to record any information about the war and diaries had to be kept secret; that’s why it was so small.

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Robin Harper, Green MSP for the Lothians, and one of the Scottish Parliament’s most colourful figures retired from the parliamentary scene at the May Scottish elections.  Along with award-winning journalist, Fred Bridgland, he produced his autobiography, Dear Mr Harper (Birlinn, £16.99).  He spoke of his book and his experiences in a recent conversation with Ian Anderson of the BBC at the National Library of Scotland.

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Haddington was the birthplace of John Knox. Most small towns are content to have produced even one eminent person, but at the start of the nineteenth century Samuel Smiles was born in the town. Almost forgotten today, he was immensely influential, the leading self-help writer of his age, and a popular historian of the early days of the Industrial Revolution. He’s remembered by a bronze plaque on the wall of his house in the High Street, and by little else.

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