
It's a very beautiful area, with dramatic seascapes, lochs, forests, soft rolling hills under big skies and the sort of little towns which have ceased to exist in the more easily accessible parts of Scotland, where people still ‘go for the messages’ (do the shopping) in a high street which still features a butcher’s, a baker’s and a greengrocer’s instead of an impersonal supermarket.
It’s not a romantic idyll, though. It’s only two hours from Glasgow which is one of the murder capitals of Europe and it has a ferryport to Ireland so police have an ant-terrorist brief. Rural poverty is very real and particularly during this vicious recession there is serious unemployment along with the sort of crime that arises from it, so there’s no shortage of ideas for the deeds of darkness that are the crime-writer’s stock-in-trade.
That’s not the kind of inspiration I was looking for, though. What I needed was to find the home for my story, identify the places where the events I was planning would unfold – though perhaps I should use the word ‘recognise’ instead of ‘find’. I stood on the shores of a loch by the remains of an Iron Age settlement, I looked out over the mudflats of the River Solway at low tide and watched a stormy sunset, I felt the peace of a ruined abbey with its glorious vaulted Chapter House and knew I had got what I came for. Though I'm home now, it’s all real to me once again and I can feel the frisson that tells me the naked fledgling is growing its feathers. Just the hard slog ahead now!
Oh, and a postscript to a previous blog where I mentioned my hundred-year-old uncle's birthday party. The next day his son went round to see how he was after such a long and tiring day. He was out at another party. Way to go!
5 comments:
I would love to see Scotland. Someday, maybe!
Let me know if you're coming, Charlotte and we'll get together!
Whoa, this is gorgeous. Envision each of the looking at along with producing you could do... Cool during the cold months even though.
Scotland is always a dreamy place to me. How i wish i could see local people dance and sing.
Post a Comment