People in most professions acquire the habit of going to conferences, sometimes on a surprisingly frequent basis. Or at least they did before COVID-19; recently this has changed and now…
ICS (Institute of Contemporary Scotland), publisher of the Scottish Review, is staging a special event near Edinburgh in the first week of June – the inaugural International Young Scotland Programme….
In 1802, in his sonnet, The world is too much with us , William Wordsworth lamented the way modern habits and industrialisation were opposing nature, and hoped for a glimpse…
A year has now passed since the word arrived of a new viral illness in Wuhan, accompanied by the alarming rumour that it seemed to pass from person to person…
‘Landmarks, Poets, Portraits and Landscapes of Modern Scotland’ by Alexander Moffat, Ruth Nicol and Alan Riach (published by East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust) This is a very special and…
Each man’s death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee. As the bells rang in the New…
First do no harm: I hope it is still the case that all medical students have heard these words from one or other of their teachers. Sometimes the admonition used…
The Invisible Spirit, Kenneth Roy’s history of post-war Scotland, will be published soon. The pre-publication offer ended at midnight on Tuesday: one reader ordered two copies two minutes before the…
The Greek myths, retold in English, were a small but memorable part of my earliest education. We followed the exciting journeys of Odysseus and the difficulties that he overcame, including…
‘Frolics in the Face of Europe, Sir Walter Scott, Continental Travel and the Tradition of the Grand Tour’, by Iain Gordon Brown (published by Fonthill) A quotation from a letter…