Good news for fans of bifocal-wearing detective/spy Johnson Johnson. The Dolly series are being republished in both book and ebook format and should be out in about two weeks time. They’ve been out of print for many years and of course are usually overshadowed by the much better known historical books, but they have an idiosyncratic charm and are full of wry humour.

They are being published by Cornish-based publisher House of Stratus and will be available in both paper and ebook versions. As soon as I have full details I’ll post them here along with links to order them. They will appear with the most recent UK titles (see the Dolly page on the main site for the full list)

Happy sailing!

I confess that through pressure of work I’d rather lost touch with the latest developments until I caught a TV programme on the BBC last night. Neil Oliver, well known for the Coast programme and a series of Scottish history programs, is actually an archaeologist and in this special edition of A History of Ancient Britain: Orkney’s Stone Age Temple he outlines the astonishing discoveries that have been made on this site in the last few years. If you are in a country that can view the BBC iPlayer I urge you to take a look http://bbc.in/s0dYWK while it’s still available to view. This could well be THE most important stone age discovery, eclipsing everything else on Orkney (which takes some doing!) and even the Stonehenge and Avebury complex.

If you can’t see the program then take a look at the Orkneyjar site – particularly http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/ and  http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/tag/ness-of-brodgar/  and for a couple of panoramas of the dig site try http://www.kenstuart.com/fp/Aerial.html  and  http://www.kenstuart.com/fp/Structure10.html

The discoveries are too numerous to attempt to list in the slightest detail here – a series of complex stone structures which suggest a temple complex which may have been associated with ancestor worship, two large (2 metre wide) walls which appear to have run the width of the Ness and funnelled people into a predetermined path, the first examples of painted neolithic walls in the UK or northern Europe, a number of mace-heads apparently broken deliberately, a number of “dressers” similar to the ones found in domestic areas of Skara Brae but here appearing to be free standing and possibly used as altars, a figurine which has been nicknamed the Brodgar Boy, and a mass of cattle bones which appears to suggest a large ceremonial feast.

There are probably decades worth of work still to be done on the site and an anonymous benefactor has bought the land on which the site stands along with the house for the people of Orkney. I look forward to reading of the discoveries and theories around this site for many years to come.

Although immersed in all things Dunnett and with a house full of multiple copies her books, I don’t quite have a full set of every title she produced. Specifically I only have two of the Dolly series – at least in English, I do have some copies in German but unfortunately that’s a language I don’t speak. The other gap in my collection was The Scottish Highlands, which I’d always meant to buy a copy of during my time at James Thin, when I sold a fair number of them, but which unexpectedly went out of print and denied me the chance. Until today.

Having unexpectedly received a cheque from a client instead of being paid by electronic transfer, I had to visit the bank in Morningside, not far from the old Dunnett home, and having paid for 20 minutes extra parking than was required something told me to nip into one of the many secondhand bookshops in that area. Scanning first the history books and then the Scottish books I suddenly spotted a familiar cover and happily acquired a copy of the missing book for a mere £3.99 and in good condition.

Memory sometimes plays odd tricks – there is a little more text than I remembered, both the initial section by Dorothy and the chapter descriptions by Alastair, and it’s interesting to find that in this context their writing styles were very similar. It’s lovely to read snippets of stories of their travels by hill pony, yacht and motor cruiser, and their clear love of the Scottish countryside, even though they explored it in different ways. It seems that unlike Alastair, who wandered the hills with friends like Michael Powell and Seton Gordon, Dorothy was no hill walker.  We also learn that although she enjoyed skating she hadn’t good balance and wasn’t very good at it. Apart from cooking that must have been about the only things she wasn’t good at!

I’ll enjoy dipping into this old friend of a book after so long. Finding the other Dollys may prove a bit harder!

The important thing is to remember the continuing fellowship of countless Dunnett readers throughout the world which she made possible, and the immense and lasting pleasure she gave to us all; changing lives, educating us while entertaining us, inspiring travel and studies of myriad aspects of history and other related subjects.

She was the best, and she will not be forgotten.

Thank you Dorothy.

There will be meetings all over the world; in Belgium, Canada, England, Spain and the USA, and of course here in Edinburgh where we’ll be gathering at the Makar’s Court off the Royal Mile, next to the stone that commemorates Dorothy’s life and work. If you’re attending any of the meetings then when you raise your glass (which I hope will contain the best malt whisky that you can find!) to her memory then you’ll be doing so together with many others.

Do enjoy the memories, whether they are of reading the books for the first time, of the first time you communicated with other readers, of any gatherings you may have attended, or, if you were lucky enough to meet her in person, of that warm smile and sparkling wit that she graced us all with. And if you wish to share any of the stories or photos old or new then I’d be more than happy to receive them.

Have a very good day!

But then I started to explore a bit more, as I hadn’t had time to spend on the site for quite a while due to moving into my new house a few months ago. And what I found was this – http://geo.nls.uk/ostowns/ – it may not look much to begin with but try zooming in. (The controls are slightly counter intuitive – click the symbols above and then click the map.) Then zoom in again, and again, and again…

You can go through various layers of different maps but you can get down to detail such as this

Linlithgow Palace - click for a larger version

This is Linlithgow Palace and St Michael’s Church from between 1848-72.

Which immediately gave me an idea. As I’ve mentioned in the past you can’t see the site of the old house that belonged to Archie and Robin because it’s been obliterated by the modern Grangemouth oil refinery and I’ve always meant to go and find an old map which had it marked – I knew it was marked because Dorothy used to have an enlarged copy of an old map on her study wall which I saw on one of my visits. So over I swung to the area and zoomed in again. And the result was

Berecrofts - click for a larger version

Interesting that the spelling is slightly different, Bearcroft rather than Berecrofts, but this must be the place, situated just across the river where Lucia died on the night of Nicholas’ fight with Simon in the salt pans. And this isn’t the final level of detail – zoom in a bit more and the layout of the house becomes visible.

Berecrofts Detail - click for a larger version

I rather think Dorothy would have liked this development. Enjoy exploring!