A week with Walter...

Having spent a week in the company of Sir Walter Scott, what are we to make of it all at the end?

Well, I had fun visiting Abbotsford and Dryburgh Abbey, and looking at some original source material in the National Library. And he has given me the idea for a lot of interesting location shots!

As in life with his financial ups-and-downs, so in appreciation of his literary skills, Scott's reputation has risen and fallen over several cycles. Mark Twain (tongue in cheek we hope) suggested Scott was responsible for the onset of the Civil War. E M Forster savaged his legacy, and overall there is no doubt that Jane Austen rather put paid to his chances when she came onto the popular market.

But post-Postmodern trends seem to be bringing Scott back, and most commentators would accept the statement that he was the inventor of the modern historical novel.

So thank you, Sir Walter. (Gives me a thought about Robert Louis Stevenson? mmmm!)

But at the end of the day, it is soothing to read him quietly by the warmth of an open fire!