Category Archives: News

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And now it’s live!

It’s been a very long time coming but I’ve been working on it steadily for the last few months and tonight I’ve launched the completely redesigned and rewritten version of the main part of the site

http://www.dorothydunnett.co.uk/

There’s new content and photos on the Places to Visit in Scotland feature, A large collection of book covers, a re-researched listing of all the previous editions, and new header images that are matched to the subject matter of every page.

Testing stil going on – if you see any problems please let me know.

Now that there’s a solid modern base again I’ll be adding new items as time allows but I’d also be delighted to receive any material that anyone wants to send me – particularly any photo or descriptions for the Places to Visit in Europe feature for any places I haven’t yet covered, or any of the book covers that I’m missing so far. Or indeed any other ideas anyone can come up with.

Hope you like it. All feedback welcome.

slainte

Bill

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It’s been a long time coming, and much delayed as work and various life events have got in the way, but for the last few months I’ve been working on the long-awaited rebuild of the main Dunnett website that this blog is an offshoot of. There’s been a lot of recoding, a lot of rewriting, and a lot more images, particuarly in the Places to Visit section.

Come back on Sunday and you’ll see a few changes! Hope you’ll like them.

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UK Book Re-issue

News is just appearing tonight of the planned reissue in the UK of all Dorothy Dunnett’s historical fiction books – The Lymond Chronicles, The House of Niccolo, and even, praise be, King Hereafter. Apparently the schedule is for the Chronicles and KH to appear in September 2017 with the HN following in 2018. The DDS press release is at http://dunnettcentral.org/archives/3925

Naturally I’m delighted that these magnificent books will once again be readily available for a new generation of readers and only hope that this time they get the promotion that they deserve. Last time (horrifying to think it’s heading on for 20 years since the last set of UK Lymond paperbacks came out) it felt like I was the only one doing anything to push them (at my then position with James Thin) and there seemed to be little budget behind the release.

Lymond for TV

The other big news – which makes me more optimistic about publicity for the books – is that a deal has apparently been done for a TV series based on Lymond, with the same company responsible for the recent Poldark remake.

This of course could be huge, and bring Dorothy to the attention of a much wider range of people. I suspect I may not be alone however in being just a bit concerned about how Lymond is portrayed on screen – and I’d be even more worried if it was for a film! If it’s done well and captures the feel of the books then wonderful, but if it over-simplifies the story, or changes the plot, then we devotees could be cringing in our shoes. However if we can’t popularise the books in the midst of the current climate surrounding the Game of Thrones series then maybe we never can.

Of course it won’t matter who they cast as Francis or Philippa, because none of us ever agree about that anyway! Probably half will love the choices and half will hate them. At least there’ll be lots of discussion.

And a final thought – maybe now the Scottish Book Trust will stop ignoring Dorothy every time they run a poll of top Scottish books!!

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The AGM weekend will be just coming to an end, and hopefully everyone has had a good day at Stirling Castle as the heavy rains of Friday and part of Saturday thankfully made way for a bit of sun.

I very nearly didn’t make the weekend at all. Away at a wedding last weekend I picked up a virus and spent the week in bed – worried that I wouldn’t be able to give my scheduled talk on Marthe on Saturday morning. As it turned out I made it, but it was a very close run thing and I had to skip the Friday night opening meal to ensure I was sufficiently recovered for the Saturday.

The first two Saturday speakers gave us talks on the archaeological work that’s been done at Stirling Castle – useful preparation for the Sunday excursion – and then after a short coffee break it was my turn. Fortunately my voice held up sufficiently to get through it and I was happy to hear plenty of good feedback. It remains to be seen whether I converted anyone to my point of view since most people seemed to start with fairly negative views of Marthe, though a couple did say they would be reconsidering their opinions on their next read. I’ll be posting the text of my talk here soon so you can all judge for yourselves.

The afternoon talk was by Dr Jennifer Scarce on Ottoman Dress and how it was used to differentiate the various levels of society. Shortly before the end I found the effects of the virus catching up on me and headed for home for a couple of hours of much-needed sleep so I could return for the evening meal, and only just woke up in time to make it back. An excellent meal and stimulating conversation, along with a short talk by Judith Wilt and presentations to Simon Hedges and Olive Millward brought the day to a satisfying close; well a least once Ann McMillan, Simon and I had indulged in our now-traditional discussion on politics in the bar afterwards. 😉

Simon and Olive

I must say a few words about these two stalwarts of the society. Olive, having organised many AGMs previously, responded to the call and stepped in again this year with her usual efficiency and flair. She’s even managed to sort out next year by persuading Kathy Lewis into taking on the job.

Simon was stepping down as Chairman after a very successful tenure. A long standing committee member he had previously been Secretary, always a difficult job in any organisation, before following me when I decided to step down due to insufficient time. During his chairmanship the society has moved forward substantially and, while all the committee members deserve credit, much of that is due to his stewardship. How he’s managed to combine it with the very complex organisation of the Dunnett Siege of Istanbul which is due to occur later this year I don’t know, (Olive is of course involved there too) but it’s been an astonishing effort and he will certainly be missed. All our thanks are due to them both for many years of sterling work.

The last few months have been so busy for me that I was horrified to realise during the dinner that I hadn’t contributed to Simon’s book of thanks, so I hope he’ll accept this as my way of saying thanks for all his work for the cause of Dunnettry.