Fact & fiction

I see the Fox has recently been inspired to reminisce about Vancouver. My holiday memories lately have been of much earlier holidays. On Saturday night, we watched "A Short History of Scotland" on BBC2. It was interesting to hear the tale of Anglo Scottish rivalry from the Scottish side, even introduced by a Scot. My knowledge of Scottish history is limited, usually seen through English eyes. Of Alexander II I knew nothing. However, I knew much about William Wallace long before Mel Gibson's film "Braveheart". The source for me was Nigel Tranter's novel on the man. It was a source of deep disappointment for me when we went to Scotland & passed through Ettrick Forest. In the novel, & I suspect it probably was so in Wallace's time, the forest was great. Wallace is described as a tall man, tall enough to carry a broadsword on his back without tripping over. This man was able to hide behind the trees of the forest. By the time we got there, the only trees were saplings, barely a foot tall, hardly enough to hide a child, let along a man of great stature like William Wallace.

The programme also referred to the dispute over kingship which Edward I of England resolved by appointing John Balliol king, rather than Robert Bruce. All this had been brought to life to me by Tranter's Bruce trilogy. So much of my knowledge of Scottish history is coloured by Tranter's historical fiction. When we went to North Berwick we were surprised to discover that it was Tranter's home town. Although I accept that he undoubtedly took a certain amount of poetic licence, I always had the impression that he always tried to keep to the historic facts as much as possible, even sometimes at the expense of the narrative.

So it was with Tranter's works in mind, we visited St Andrews. Our visit to Edinburgh castle was recalled when later reading his novel about deciding on Edinburgh as the capital of Scotland & the building of the castle there.

All these memories came flooding back as the programme went on. I was also reminded just how beautiful a country Scotland is. It's high time we went again. I'd love to see Linlithgow & Stirling castles, though these days I could no longer get round much of them.