News of the Dead

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News of the Dead is certainly far from dull and the author manages to pull off several different styles, including passages in Scots dialect for the stories told by the irrepressible and accommodating Geordie Kemp, who never likes to disappoint a listener.

James Untangling truth from fiction in the Grampians: James

Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. This book looks at the ways stories are passed on through generations, how they connect the past and present, how they change and evolve with each retelling. And yet there is still that principle of truth which validates them. James Robertson weaves a compelling story with legends, beliefs and traditions from three different time periods. There was an element of mystery as I wondered what connected the three parts of the story, with Maja’s story from the contemporary strand being particularly intriguing. There’s a lot to enjoy in Greig’s novel (Romance! Witchcraft! Golf! Theology! Reivers! High politics! Assassinations!) but for me none of it would work if it hadn’t already passed what I shall call the Hilary Mantel Uncertainty Test. It’s quite simple. Does the book make the past feel as alive and uncertain as the present? Remarkably – and wonderfully – all three of this crop of Scottish novels do just that. Made by award winning filmmaker Anthony Baxter, the short documentary/drama follows Robertson as he explores the writing of his new novel News of the Dead, which is set in the fictional Glen Conach. Published by Penguin this month, the book features characters set hundreds of years apart, but all linked by the same place: an ancient hermit, a nineteenth-century charlatan and, in the present day, the Glen’s eldest resident whose young schoolboy friend thinks he’s seen a ghost.The challenge for the reader is all the more invigorating when characters are uncertain as to what is real and what isn’t. As Maja says of her life-story: “It comes to this in the end – a mixture of memories and imaginings and I’m not sure which is which.” What is clear to us, though, is that her creator has written a wise and hugely satisfying novel about stories, sanctuary and, to quote the Baron, the “strange, heeliegoleerie world we bide in”. We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. In the film, Baxter follows Robertson from his home in Newtyle to Glen Esk in search of an ancient cross stone captured in a postcard, once given to the novelist by a neighbour. The stone is said to have been carved by a pupil of the real life seventh-century Glen Esk hermit, Saint Drostan.

News of the Dead by James Robertson - Episode guide - BBC

In 2013, James Robertson wrote a story a day: 365 tales, each one 365 words long. They were published in one volume the following year. Some stories were nothing more than light sketches, pithy squibs and fleeting impressions. However, many made a little go a long way and showcased experiments in form and a diverse array of subject matter, whether ballads, monologues, fake obituaries, replayed dreams or restyled fairy tales. In one entry, a writer describes his more inventive fables: “They’re the stories I let out in the open, the ones I slip off the leash.” I love James Robertson's writing. He could write a four-volume 'History of Paperclips in Southern Kazakhstan' and it would still be fantastic. In the early nineteenth century, self-promoting antiquarian Charles Kirkliston Gibb has himself invited to Glen Conach, to the big house where the laird, his lady and daughter live. Gibb undertakes to translate the Book of Conach. It is in Gibb’s interest to prolong the translation for as long as possible: he has nowhere else to stay. And in time he becomes involved with Jessamine, the laird’s daughter. Jessamine convinces Gibb to include some stories from the local oral tradition. There aren't enough stars for this book--it is beautiful, playful and profound. Historical fiction that plays with the idea of history itself.

One day you will wake up and it will be the last day of your life. You may know this or you may not.’ Generations later, in the early nineteenth century, self-promoting antiquarian Charles Kirkliston Gibb is drawn to the Glen, and into the big house at the heart of its fragile community. Conach told Talorg that ten years was a long time to a youth, but little more than a short sleep to an older man, and less than the blink on an eye to God’

News of the Dead by James Robertson | Waterstones

As I was reading, I felt that the stories took a long time to get going, and was waiting to see how they were related. They were, however, separate stories but with the link that they all happened in the same glen, and the remoteness of the glen had an influence on each story. The message I took from the book, is that history is made by everyone, not just through official records, but also spoken stories and folklore, and personal diaries and memories. There is no real way of proving which is the correct version, but everyone is involved, and everyone contributes to the history of where they live.

But the story really starts with Lachie, the eight-year-old son of the present day laid telling Maya, the oldest inhabitant of the glen, that he has seen the ghost of the “dumb girl”. This ghost is a newcomer to the glen. She is not part of Conach’s story. Her tory is important and will be woven into the tale of Glen Conach, and will become part of its history. Ian Parsons has spent several years living permanently in Extremadura and now splits his time between his native county of Devon and his beloved vulture landscape, where he leads bird tours introducing people to the birds and the area he clearly loves. Deep down, I knew that Henry VIII couldn’t possibly have died while jousting because it was only 1536 and he still had another four and a half wives to go, but such was the clarity of Mantel’s depiction of the scene and the confidence of her writing from within Cromwell’s skull that it excised this knowledge from my own. The king had indeed been seriously wounded – so much so that it altered his whole character – but he was merely unconscious, not dead. Cromwell, taking command of the scene, shouted out the news. ‘“Long live the king!” Thomas bellows (thinking “God save Thomas Cromwell”).’ This is also a book with a strong sense of place, in this case Glen Conach. Finding your place to belong is a key theme. As Maja says “everyone has a place, a real place or a memory of a place, or a dream of a place.” The use of dialect firmly rooted this book in the Scottish glens. I really enjoyed the use of dialect which appears in some parts of the book though it may pose a challenge to non-Scots. Even I had to look up some words! But don’t let that put you off, as it adds to the richness of the narrative. The News of the Dead is a cleverly almost classicesque written piece which is thought provoking and moving. Delving into the people of our past and the stories that are passed down through generations. These stories are the way in which people are remembered for years after they leave this earth. But how much of these stories are true? And as they are passed down throughout the generations and rewritten, how much is added to it by the new narrator of its time.

James Robertson - Penguin Books UK James Robertson - Penguin Books UK

It’s been a real privilege to make this film with James Robertson,” said Baxter, speaking from his home in Montrose. “He is one of Scotland’s most respected novelists, and it’s been fascinating to explore the five year creative process of this extraordinary and compelling book, which has been partly shaped by the pandemic we’ve all been living through.”

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