Tag Archives: Scotland

Fairy cows and ferry nous

Posted on 30/11/2025 by alasdairflett

My first drive onto a ferry was not in Orkney but at Kennacraig. We were taking the boat to Port Askaig in Islay where we would be staying for three nights on a last gasp long weekend before the close … Continue reading →

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Admitted and discharged

Posted on 20/09/2025 by alasdairflett

A historic week for the family Flett (the one commencing 8 September). It started with the 30th anniversary of my parents on Tuesday, was sandwiched with my qualification as a solicitor on Thursday and ended with the birth of the … Continue reading →

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Egoless autofiction or the self-erasing memoir: Nan Shepherd’s ‘The Living Mountain’

Posted on 16/03/2025 by alasdairflett

In The Living Mountain Nan Shepherd inverts her eye, but it’s not her mind we see but Mind itself. It is a theory of the mind from a particular mind mode. Mind minus ident and the idem from the idiosyncratic. … Continue reading →

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The adders and slowworms of this morning’s breakfast table

Posted on 20/10/2024 by alasdairflett

Tuesday Escape is my aim but my nostrils root me in greater Glasgow when two friends embark at Dalmuir harbouring a sharp scent of cannabis in the folds of their clothes, unfurling as they rise or shuffle in their seats. … Continue reading →

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English Road

Posted on 30/08/2023 by alasdairflett

I wouldn’t exactly recommend the Camino Ingles in England, even though overall it was enjoyable. The route follows what is thought to be the path taken by pilgrims from the south before they departed from Great Britain and onto mainland … Continue reading →

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The deserts of Scotland

Posted on 24/06/2023 by alasdairflett

I’d always wanted to read Walter Scott. In fact, I’d attempted to before – embarking on a free Kindle version of Waverley which was abandoned for whatever reason; probably the dense prose style that strains the attention of a restless … Continue reading →

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Remembering Alasdair Gray

Posted on 05/01/2020 by alasdairflett

Artistic blooms tend to be triggered by seismic technological or political change. Where the first Scottish literary “renaissance” arrived as the result of the brutal shock to romantic sentiments the First World War had dealt, a new flurry of writing … Continue reading →

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1979

Posted on 25/08/2019 by alasdairflett

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. […] The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and … Continue reading →

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The man o’ independent mind: who was Robert Burns?

Posted on 25/01/2018 by alasdairflett

Robert Burns is the National Poet of Scotland – a phrase I use to introduce the most important figure of Scottish literature. This led, after about the third repetition to the question of: Why does not England then have a … Continue reading →

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Opposites Album Review

Posted on 09/02/2013 by alasdairflett

Biffy Clyro are an alternative rock band from Kilmarnock. They comprise of Simon Neil, the principal songwriter, on guitar and vocals and twins Ben and James Johnston on drums and bass respectively. Their musical style involves a lot of stop … Continue reading →

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