December 2019/January 2020
SCOTS NEWS magazine SUMMER READING Excerpts from new books
BURNS EVENTS Honouring Scotland’s Bard
CULLODEN DEVELOPMENT Latest on battle over holiday park
YEAR OF SCOTLAND AUSTRALIA Scottish events in Oz in 2020
Volume 9 Number 4
WIN ONE OF 12 PRIZES in our annual CHRISTMAS GIVE-AWAY
FRONT COVER PHOTO
CHRISTMAS in Scotland conjures up images of nights curled up by a roaring log fire, singlemalt whisky in one hand and a piece of freshly baked shortbread in the other, as snow gently blankets the roof. That’s the chocolate box image, but anyone who has lived in Scotland will tell you that at this time of the year it’s cold, dark, damp and windy - all the more reason to sit by the fire! Christmas is celebrated widely throughout Scotland, but that was not always the case. In 1560 Scotland split from the Catholic Church at the time of the Scottish Reformation. Christmas celebrations, and any activities seen as extravagant, were banned by the Protestant church. In 1583 the Glasgow Kirk at St Mungo’s Cathedral ordered the excommunication of those who celebrated yule. Even singing a Christmas carol was considered to be a criminal offence. The ban was officially repealed in 1712, but the church continued to frown upon festive celebrations. It was not until 1958 that Christmas Day was declared a public holiday. Boxing Day was not recognised as a festive holiday until 1974. While Hogmanay is still the major celebration in Scotland, Christmas and all its traditions have been embraced by Scots, at home and abroad.
PUBLISHING AND CONTACTS SCOTS NEWS magazine is an independent publication for Scots in Queensland. The magazine is published bi-monthly and distributed on the first of the month. EDITOR AND PUBLISHER: Carmel McMurdo Audsley. COPYRIGHT: All stories appearing in the magazine are written by the editor unless otherwise stated and are subject to copyright laws. Stories may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the editor. COMPETITIONS: See page 7 for competition prizes and entry details. CONTACT: We welcome emails and would love to hear your news and views. Advertising enquiries are also welcome. EMAIL: scotsnews@iinet.net.au DEADLINE FOR FEBRUARY/MARCH ISSUE: January 10.
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FROM THE EDITOR
ANOTHER decade looms and the world keeps turning, despite all the dire predictions. The dreadful bushfires experienced in Australia have been yet another reminder of just how fragile life can be. The fires have been a double blow to many farmers who are already struggling with years of drought and having to make the heart-breaking decisions to get rid of stock. If only we could channel some of the rain that Scotland gets into our parched earth in Australia. At Christmas time, more than ever, we give thanks for all that we have, and hope life improves for all who have suffered for so long. On page 6 we have the latest news on the proposed development on Culloden Moor - how it was ever approved is beyond me. There’s an excerpt from my latest novella Seven Deadly Sinners on page 8. It’s currently available as an e-book, but you can pre-order your paperback by emailing me. On page 7 you will have the chance to win a great gift in our annual Christmas GiveAway. We had an amazing response to last month’s give-away of Culloden CDs, so make sure you get your entry in. I wish you and yours all the blessings of Christmas. May a handsome first-footer grace your door at midnight on December 31, and ring in peace and prosperity for the year ahead.
CONTENTS
Carmel
First Footing Burns Celebrations Year of Scotland Australia 2020 English Make Best Porridge Chieftan For Bundanoon Latest on Culloden Development Christmas Give-away Summer Read Seven Deadly Sinners Summer Read War’s End Summer Read Something Wicked Summer Read Telegram Home Directory of Goods and Services Calendar of Events Signed Books for Christmas
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We had a large number of entries to win a Culloden CD in the OCTOBER/NOVEMBER GIVE-AWAY. Winners are: Nel Fulloon, Greg Fraser and Cameron Stewart
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
FIRST FOOTERS BRING GIFTS OF HEA LTH A ND PROSPERITY
HOGMANAY
The art of gift giving is synonymous with Christmas, but in Scotland until the 1950s Christmas was not celebrated in most homes. Many Scots worked over the traditional Christmas period and celebrated the winter solstice with a holiday and party on December 31 at Hogmanay. While naughty children the world over hope they won’t get coal in their Christmas stockings, the Scots consider it lucky to be given coal, whisky and shortbread by a handsome first-footer on New Year’s Eve. FIRST-FOOTING is a tradition that has long been practised in Scotland. It is part of the Hogmanay celebrations that take place in private homes and festivals across Scotland, and has always been a much bigger celebration than Christmas. The custom of first-footing has a long history and is as popular as ever. To ensure a household has good luck for the coming year, the first person to cross the threshold should be a dark-haired male who brings a piece of coal, a dram of whisky and some shortbread or black bun, and sometimes salt and a silver coin as well. The preference for a dark male is believed to stem from the days of the Vikings, when a burly fairhaired man landing on your doorstep usually meant trouble. ‘Lang may yer lum reek’ is a popular saying in Scotland at the
start of a new year. Translated as ‘long may your chimney smell’ a gift of coal would ensure that you always have fuel for your fire, and could therefore stay warm. The whisky and food also ensured warmth and comfort. If you want to sweep away the old year, ring in the new and give you and your family the gift of good luck for the coming year, there are centuries old traditions you can do to ensure prosperity. On New Year’s Eve, clean your house and take out the ashes from the fire. If you owe money to anyone, it is tradition to pay your debts before ‘the bells’ sound at midnight so that you start the new year with a clean slate. The Bells is a term used to describe the midnight hour when New Year’s Eve becomes New Year’s Day. Choose a dark-haired male friend to be your first-footer and
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
assemble the gifts ready to be brought into the house. Gather friends and family at your home to celebrate the ending of the old year and beginning of the new year. Immediately after midnight, everyone joins hands and forms a circle to sing Robert Burns’ Auld Lang syne. Your first-footer will knock three times on your door and be the first person to cross your threshold after midnight. He will then hand the gifts to the owner of the house and accept a whisky to toast the new year. This is an important part of the ritual as it is considered bad luck (and bad manners) not to offer the first-footer a drink, and it is symbolic of inviting good luck to stay. Hogmanay and and first-footing are all about celebrating the greatest gift anyone can have friends and family.
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EVENTS
BURNS NICHT events mark the anniversary of Robert Burns’ birth on January 25 each year. The first Burns Supper was held in July 1801 when nine of Burns’ close friends got together to mark the fifth anniversary of their friend’s death. Taking place at Burns Cottage in Alloway, the night included a tasty meal (including haggis), performances of Burns’ work and a speech in honour of the great Bard (now known as the Immortal Memory). The night was such a resounding success they decided to hold it again (this time in honour of Burns’ birthday), establishing the tradition we still enjoy.
Burns Supper in Toowoomba marks start of 150-year celebrations
TOOWOOMBA Caledonian Society and Pipe Band Inc will kick off its 150-year celebrations with a Burns Supper to be held at Drayton Hall on Saturday February 1, 2020 from 6pm. The evening will include a fourcourse formal dinner, including haggis entree with address, and entertainment from the pipe band. There will be prizes for the best dressed, raffle and a licensed bar. Cost of the meal is $45 per person and bookings are essential. Email ronimcTCS@gmail.com or phone Marg on 0429 700 217.
Whisky connoisseurs will love Burns at Carlyle in Townsville TOWNSVILLE Scottish Community will host its annual Burns at Carlyle on Saturday February 1, 2020 from 6pm at the Carlton Theatre, Carlyle Gardens in Townsville. Whisky connoisseurs will have the opportunity to purchase reasonably-priced tickets at the bar, to join an exclusive table and exchange your ticket for a half nip of an unidentified Scottish whisky to smell, taste and enjoy - and try to correctly identify from multiple choice. The brand of whisky will be changed several times during the evening, and patrons will be invited to purchase another ticket to taste and identify each one. The person who correctly identifies the most whiskies takes home whatever remains in the bottle of their preferred whisky. The evening includes a threecourse dinner and entertainment. Tickets always sell out fast. Contact Marie Gibson on mlg7@optusnet.com.au
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Burns Nicht Celebrations A night of pipes and haggis at Fox and Hounds
Sup p er and d anci ng at Ip sw i ch
FOX AND HOUNDS Country Inn at Wangawallan in the Gold Coast hinterland will host A Night of Pipes and Haggis on Saturday January 25, 2020 from 6.30pm. A three-course meal will be served, beginning with piping in the Haggis, washed down with whisky. Vegetarian options available. Entertainment will be provided by the Brisbane City Pipe Band. Cost is $55 per person. Visit https:// www.foxandhounds.net.au/ special-events-cont
IPSWICH City Pipe Band will host a Burns Supper on Saturday January 25, 2020 at Ipswich Basketball Association, 2A Ross Llewellyn Drive, Ipswich from 5.30pm. Enjoy a traditional Burns Supper, complete with Address to the Haggis, with Scotch broth, Haggis, tatties and neeps, tea, coffee and shortbread, with vegetarian options available. Entertainment will be provided by the pipe band and Ishka, and a dance caller for your dashing white sergeants and gay gordons. Tickets are $35 for adults and $17.50 for children aged 14 and under. Discounts apply to members. Visit the band’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ events/398084514438857/, email treasurer@ipswichpipeband.com or phone 0429 362 142.
The latest book from author
Carmel McMurdo Audsley has just been released. Read an excerpt at www.scottishbooks.webs.com!
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
NEWS
ANNIVERSARIES IN SCOTTISH HISTORY December December 1, 1787 - First lighthouse in Scotland opened (at Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh). It was built by Thomas Smith and Robert Stevenson.
A NATIONWIDE calendar of events, celebrating Scottish music, culture, food and drink will begin at Hogmanay on December 31, 2019 and continue through until December 31, 2020 to celebrate the Year of Scotland Australia 2020. Activities include Scottish representation at over 35 Australian festivals, and Scottish artists taking part in regional and remote Australian touring through the Festival of Small Halls Australia, and in standalone tours. Events will be publicised in Scots News Magazine and at https://www.facebook.com/YOSA2020.
Heilan coos in Loch Lomond (Australia)
December 6, 1214 - King Alexander II crowned at Scone. December 8, 1542 - Mary, Queen of Scots, born Linlithgow Palace. Her father, on his deathbed said “It cam wi’ ane lass; it will pas wi’ ane lass” - a reference to the Stuart line starting when Marjorie Bruce, daughter of King Robert the Bruce, married Walter, High Steward of Scotland. December 9, 1165 - King Malcolm IV died at Jedburgh Castle December 23, 1831 - Major outbreak of cholera in Scotland. December 24, 1650 - Edinburgh castle surrendered to Oliver Cromwell. December 28, 1879 - Tay Bridge disaster.
January January 1, 1537 - King James V married Magdalene of France. January 7, 1451 - Glasgow University founded at the request of James II and Bishop Turnbull. January 8, 1661 - The first newspaper in Scotland published. Mercurius Caledonius offered coverage of “the Affairs now in Agitation in Scotland, with a Survey of Foreign Intelligence.” It ceased publication on 28 March after only nine issues. January 8, 1729 - Two women arrested in Edinburgh for wearing men’s clothing. January 13, 1893 - Keir Hardie of Legbrannock, Lanarkshire, founded Independent Labour Party.
OUR cover photo and story in the October/ November 2019 issue of Scots News Magazine about the Highland Cows (Heilan Coos) prompted reader Frank Archer to send us this photo which shows the dry conditions in rural Australia. He is looking after a number of Highland breed cattle at his property ‘Sosaso’ at Loch Lomond near Killarney on the Darling Downs in Queensland. The property name stands for ‘Start Off Slowly And Slacken Off’. Loch Lomond was named in honour of the many Scots who settled the area. Mr Archer is a Freemason and a member of Lodge Cunningham which practises Scottish Ritual in their ceremonies, including wearing the kilt to Lodge.
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
January 14, 1872 - Greyfriars Bobby died after staying by his master’s grave for 14 years. January 14, 1878 -Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his telephone to Queen Victoria. She made the first call in the British Isles from her residence on the Isle of Wight. January 16, 1746 - Retreating Jacobite army defeated Hanoverian forces at Battle of Falkirk. January 25, 1759 - Robert Burns born Alloway. January 26, 1861 - “One o’clock gun” fired for the first time from Edinburgh Castle. January 31, 1761 - Lachlan Macquarie, the “Father of Australia” born Ulva.
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NEWS
Chieft an for Bund anoon 2 0 2 0
AIR Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret’d) has been named as Chieftain of the Day at the 43rd annual Bundanoon Highland Gathering (known as Bundanoon is Brigadoon) on Saturday April 4, 2020. Houston was born in West Kilbride, south-west of Glasgow in Scotland, overlooking the Firth of Clyde. His father was a Royal Air Force officer who was shot down at Handzame in 1943, and became a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III, ‘The Great Escape’ camp. Sir Angus applied to join the Royal Air Force in 1966 and, after passing all the tests, was told he was too tall. He applied to go to Australia and arrived in Perth in January 1968 at 20 years of age and went to work on properties. It wasn’t until he was in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1970 that he realised the seat they had tested him in was in a fully up position. Had the seat been in the fully lowered position, he may have passed the cockpit test and joined the Royal Air Force. He is the patron for many charitable organisations where he generously donates his time.
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English make best porridge in Scotland COMPETITORS from England have brought the Golden Spurtle trophy back to the UK. The annual world porridge-making event, held in the small Highland village of Carrbridge, attracts local and international competitors each year with entries from Sweden, Canada, Germany France, Poland and across the UK. After a double win for Sweden in 2018, Lisa Williams from Suffolk was crowned World Porridge Making Champion and Nick Barnard from London took out the specialty title. “From the moment you step into the village you are welcomed like family,” Ms Williams said. “From the flags and the tartan, to the people from the village who organise everything, the ladies
who serve the porridge, the volunteers who wash up our equipment, the porridge parade, the bagpipes - it’s just magical.” Competitors use only oatmeal, water and salt but for the specialty category, anything goes. Nick Barnard won with a Maple Pecan Porridge with cream. The inaugural Silver Spurtle award for contestants under age 16 was taken out by 15-year-old local lad Carlin Beattie from Carrbridge, for the best porridge made from just oatmeal, water and salt. Event co-ordinator, Charlie Miller, said he was thrilled with the interest the Silver Spurtle competition had attracted both locally and internationally. “We look forward to seeing this new generation of porridge makers coming through, perhaps even to challenge for the Golden Spurtle in the years ahead.”
GOLDEN WINNERS: Nick Barnard from London for his Maple Pecan Porridge and Lisa Williams from Suffolk for the best porridge made with oats, water and salt.
SILVER WINNERS: Swede Hjalmar Nofors (back, left) took out the specialty prize. Scot Carlin Beattie (next to Hjalmar, wearing white) took out the inaugural Silver Spurtle trophy.
Latest news from Stop Culloden Development Group DEVELOPERS of a controversial holiday park within the historic boundary of the Culloden Battlefield, have pledged to incorporate the significance of the historic battle into their plans. A £1 million proposal for four-star lodges and a 100-seat restaurant at TreeTops Stables in Faebuie, on Culloden Moor, has sparked fury from protesters who claim it will desecrate the battlefield. Developers, Inverness Paving, and the architects, HRI Munro, hosted an open day in November which was also attended by members of Stop Culloden Development. “The site has national and international importance, not only Scottish,” a spokesperson for the group said. “It is one of the few places that openly speaks about the horrifying effects of the Highland Clearances that affect Scottish culture to this very day.” The site sits about one kilometre north of the section of the battlefield owned by National Trust for Scotland, but falls within the historic boundary of the greater battlefield and the Culloden Muir Conservation Area.
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
CHRISTMAS GIVE-AWAY
Win One of These Great Gifts! Send an email marked ‘Christmas Give-Away’ to scotsnews@iinet.net.au by Friday December 6, to go into the multi-draw. You have 12 chances of winning a prize. Please include your name and address so that we can post your gift.
GOOD LUCK AND MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SCOTS NEWS MAGAZINE! THE LOCH NESS MONSTER
VANILLA TABLET
Children’s book about Nessie
150g box Highland Maid Creamy Vanilla Fudge
A STEAMY AFFAIR DVD
THE GRUFFALO Children’s Book
GRACE OF THE WILD CD
Story of the Flying Scotsman
Scots language translation
14 tracks of traditional music
TUNNOCK’S TEA CAKES
RE-USABLE JUTE BAG
SCOTTISH NUTCRACKER
Packet of six choc-covered marshmallow treats
With a Scottish sense of humour
4.24” x 14” Wooden Collectable
SEVEN DEADLY SINNERS
HUNGRY HETTIE BOOKS
EDINBURGH ROCK
Latest Novella by Carmel McMurdo Audsley
Children’s book from the Hettie the Highland Cow series
6 sticks - 135g box
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
HARRY POTTER BOOK Scots Edition
Scots language translation
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SUMMER READING Outback Queensland January 1957 CHA PTER ONE – Day 1 THE big blue and white Pioneer Clipper motor coach lumbered along the dry dirt road as it bounced over corrugations, and jerked to a halt outside the isolated pub in far southwestern Queensland. The eight-yearold coach, with its split windscreen and sliding windows, could carry up to twenty-nine passengers from the New South Wales capital city of Sydney to Cairns in the far north of Queensland, but not today. Red dust covered the iron roof and verandah of the dilapidated wooden two-storey building that sat on stumps between two large gum trees, in the midst of the parched dry plain. It had not rained in or around the closest town of Booree for five long years. Not even a sprinkle of moisture had fallen from the sky in all that time, and the only water available to the pub was stored in two large tin tanks that were now almost empty. The aptly-named Watering Hole Hotel sat in a remote and unpopulated area of outback Queensland, fifty miles from the New South Wales border. It was the only place to stop for food, drink and accommodation for one hundred miles either side of it. It was January, at the height of an Australian summer, when temperatures could reach over forty degrees Celsius (one hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit) in the shade. The only people to visit The Watering Hole were yahoos who got there under their own steam and were out to get drunk and kill a few kangaroos, and travellers who were on their way to somewhere more interesting. The door of the dust-covered coach slowly opened outwards, and a large
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SEVEN DEADLY SINNERS by CARMEL McMURDO AUDSLEY No mobile phones, not even a landline, no electricity, no computers, no radio – just a band of unexpected guests stranded at an isolated outback hotel in Queensland Australia in 1957. They all have somewhere else to be, but thunder storms and flooding prevent them from carrying on. Each person has a story, but who is telling the truth – and who is murdering them one at a time?
overfed man with a ruddy face eased himself from the well-worn black leather driver’s seat. His protruding stomach preceded the rest of his body’s arrival as he slowly and heavily navigated the two steps of the coach and touched his feet upon the ground. He had been stopping in at the pub every few months for the past five years with cashed-up tourists looking for a quick outback experience, before continuing their journeys to the cool beaches and luxurious hotels on the coast and in the cities. He was known to all as Fat Frank. He wore sturdy brown laceup boots upon his feet, long off-white coloured socks that stretched up to his knees, khaki shorts that hung below his massive paunch, and a food-stained short-sleeved blue Hawaiian print shirt. A half-smoked, roll-your-own cigarette dangled from the left side of his mouth. He coughed loudly and spit on the ground, but the cigarette didn’t leave his mouth. It was stuck firmly to his bottom lip. He waddled to the side of the coach and opened the large door upwards. He retrieved three suitcases and placed them on the ground, then sat down on one of them and wiped the sweat from his brow with a crumpled buff-coloured handkerchief. Fat Frank was not in the best of health.
nothing to see but miles and miles of scorched red and brown earth, so dry that it had broken into pieces like squares on a bar of chocolate. Tired gum trees, whose parched roots clung to the barren land like worn gnarled fingers, occasionally broke the monotonous view. There was not a bird or animal in sight as they took whatever refuge was available, under dry bushes and beside rocks, from the heat of the blazing sun. The man smiled the smile of the selfassured and shook his head, then extended his hand inside the coach. “Well looky here, darlin’,” he said in his slow Texas drawl. “We’ve officially reached the ass end of the world.”
Continue reading at https://www.amazon.com/dp/ B07ZTY54RL Carmel is also the editor of Scots News Magazine. Limited paperback copies are available from scotsnews@iinet.net.au
Next to emerge from the coach was a tall middle-aged man with a large frame. He wore a black three-piece suit in the searing summer heat, polished black patent leather shoes and smoked a fat Cuban cigar. He had the air of a man who was used to getting what he wanted. He looked at the weather-beaten timber pub, then took in the horizon. There was
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
SUMMER READING
WHEN war broke out I was just finishing my training as a signalman in the Royal Navy, and whilst on embarkation leave I married the sixmonth-pregnant Thelma. It was a kind of sudden thing, following the common practice of the day; the choice between a wedding ring and an arseful of shotgun pellets. Never mind. Thelma was a looker and smart with it. I could have done a lot worse. Her mother, May, looked at me all through the event as a Michelin-starred chef might regard a cockroach, but then I wasn’t marrying May, was I? After the nuptials I made my way to HMS Kikuyu – a Tribal Class destroyer based in Portsmouth. Kikuyu spent the first winter of the war beating up and down the North Sea and the English Channel, escorting merchant shipping. Our son, Thomas Bernard Jackson, was born on a cold November morning. I was somewhere off the Norfolk coast at the time, but did receive a brief coded telegram that was delivered to the radio room aboard ship. During our vessel’s next docking at Portsmouth I got a short letter from Thelma describing how the baby had been four weeks premature, weighing just six pounds, but was doing very well. In this early period of the war, the main danger came from German Eboats from bases in Emden and the North Sea Islands, and from bombers from the same region. We had all been briefed on U-boats, but they did not seem too much of a threat in that area. Fortunately or otherwise, Kikuyu seemed to miss most of the action that happened, as some of our escorting was carried out in weather so foul that the E-boats were stuck in their ports. But that all ended when the Germans invaded France and the Low Countries, trapping most of the British Army, and a lot of the French, at Dunkirk. What happened at Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo is pretty common knowledge nowadays and Kikuyu played her part. She was a few
WAR’S END by ALLAN NEIL
One of four novella-length stories with the common theme of escape from one form of oppression or another, War’s End gives a good impression of how Midlothian was in the 1940s. Three of the four stories in the soon-to-be-released Tales of Liberation have characters that come from a fictional representation of the author’s home town of Penicuik inScotland.
miles west of Southampton when she got the order to make speed towards Dover. We were approaching Dover Harbour and I was on watch on the bridge as Duty Bunting Tosser (signalman), when the Sparker (radio operator) came up from below with a decoded message. The Skipper got me to send an acknowledgement by lamp to the harbour station (‘radio traffic is going to be thick, Bunts’) before summoning all officers to the bridge. First he turned to the Navigation Officer: ‘Plot me a course to Dunkirk, George’. He then put all the officers in the picture about what was happening across the channel. ‘I think we can expect some variation on our orders, which are to get in as close as we can to the harbour walls, take as many Army personnel as we can on board, then beat it back to whichever English port can take us. We may well be under attack before we get there, whilst we are alongside and when we are returning.’ He looked around and waved the message. ‘I don’t know any more than what’s in this piece of paper. No doubt we’ll find out soon enough. Now go back to your men and put them in the picture.’ He turned to the Navigator. ‘How long, George?’ ‘An hour to ninety minutes, Sir.’ ‘Right.’ He turned to the ‘Jimmy’ – the First Lieutenant. ‘Get the watches changed over in fifteen minutes, Harry, pipe Action Stations and make sure Damage Control is up and running. We could be in for a shaky time.’ The Officer of the Watch, a young Subby (Sub Lieutenant) looked a bit pale and shaky, but called out, ‘Got
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
that, Sir. I’ll take care of it.’ As he turned to leave the bridge, the Jimmy said ‘Good man, Mr Protheroe,’ nodding at the skipper. As soon as I was relieved, I went below to get overalls and a tin hat on before going to my Action Station, which was on Damage Control on the foc’sle deck fire crew, not normally a signalman’s station, but this was no normal situation and a big proportion of the seaman ratings had been put on boat duties. Already the ship resembled a disturbed ants’ nest, with men scurrying backwards and forwards, each knowing, I hoped, his duty in the impending operation. Before leaving the bridge I had spotted a little smudge of smoke dead ahead, where I guessed Dunkirk to be. When I got to my post the cloud had thickened and got higher, and I could just discern tiny dots above it that could only be aircraft wheeling around.
Look for this new release at https://www.amazon.com
Other books by Allan Neil
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SUMMER READING August 1888
THE early morning was cool and damp, feeling more like October than the waning days of August. Gauzy wisps of first light fought their way through long tendrils of fog that slipped around the edges of the ship as if ghostly fingers were reaching up at it from Lake Erie and trying to pull it into its murky depths. Both gasand electric-light posts stationed along the dock’s long causeway did little to help the new morning in dissipating the gloom. The ship, the Orion, a two hundred and sixty-foot side-wheel steamer, sat silently in its mooring at Toledo’s Front Street docks, while workers dockside clamored, loading large wooden boxes and oblong crates into the cargo holds below Orion’s main deck. Groups of laborers would either walk the lighter crates up the gangplank or, for the heavier ones, use the ship’s boom. Jericho Mannion, the Orion’s captain and owner, watched the antlike display from his perch in the pilothouse at the top of the bow of the ship. He took a long drag from his cigarette then washed it down with a swill of strong, black coffee as he squinted through the translucent vapor swirling beyond the window. He was anxious to get underway but wasn’t quite sure why, and that uncertainty now kept him in a perpetually uneasy state. He feared the Orion hadn’t many trips left in her, thanks to the railroad companies and their growing monopoly on land, and now rather surprisingly, on water. The great locomotive lines decided the smoothest way to transition goods and passengers from a ship to a train or vice versa on their journeys westward and back, was to own both modes of transportation. There were but a few remaining private “package and passenger” ships left on the Great Lakes, the Orion being one, and Jericho Mannion was feeling the pinch.
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SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by WILLIAM TODD Jericho Mannion is the captain of an old, cash-strapped steamer named the Orion. He's been steadily losing money to the railways. William Ross is team leader of a university archaeology dig tasked with retrieving the debris from a meteorite crash in western Ohio. He is quite anxious to get his find back to the university for study and is willing to pay Jericho double the fare for his team and cargo to forego the Orion's other ports of call for a straight shot across Lake Erie from Toledo, Ohio to Buffalo, New York. Jericho becomes suspicious when Ross refuses to divulge the contents of his cargo. What few people on the ship know is what was initially thought to be a meteorite crash turned out to be an alien craft and what is in th crates in the cargo hold is still alive.
He closed his eyes and pictured the cloud-dotted skies that often accompanied his summer sojourns. the glass-like waters that reflected the high firmament always gave him a calmness that hard dirt could not. And the Great Lakes had a smell to them like nothing else. It was the only air he had ever breathed, and he never wanted that scent to be far from his nostrils. However, the Jekyllian tranquility of those majestic waters also had a much darker Hyde-like temperament that could show itself without warning. The weather could change in the blink of an eye, especially as the later months wore on. Clear blue skies and calm, glassy waters could be swallowed by a hungry November Witch, almost in an instant. You needed to know intimately your mistress if you wanted to make a life on these waters, and Jericho Mannion knew Lake Erie like no other. Yet, with all the experience, with all the fondness he had for the lakes, it saddened him to think he might have to give up the Orion to auction, in order to pay his growing debts. This trip would help. But not enough. Nowhere near enough. Jericho let out a long breath, took a sip of the now tepid fluid, and resumed his inspection of the workers below. Continue reading at https://www.amazon.com/SomethingWicked-This-Way-Comes-ebook/dp/ B07SW1K5NG
William Todd has also written a series of Sherlock Holmes inspired novels.
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
TELEGRAM HOME
SUMMER READING NAVIN Pandya leaned back, abandoning his chisel and mallet on the ground next to his trusty boaster and rolled the kinks from his elbows and shoulders. In the haze of the afternoon heat he could see the clamour of activity around Maharaja Ram Singh, as he examined the work of one of his fellow craftsmen. Navin fantasised what it must be like to be part of the Singh family, the original builders of the great Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. Navin didn’t understand how any of the instruments worked, given he was just a stonemason employed for his particular skill of finishing stone to an impossible smooth surface. But he was prone to fantasy. The heat pooling among the astronomical devices didn’t bother Navin, he worried more about the trouble he’d been having catching his breath over the past few weeks. He rubbed at his concave chest, bare under the Indian sun, his dusty fingers playing his exposed ribs like a harpsichord. Around him other stonemasons toiled away, repairing a century’s worth of damage to the magical Jantar Mantar, replacing the crumbling plaster instruments with hardier stone replicas. A fine dust danced on the shimmering warmth, tiny imperceptible particles worming their way into the lungs of the workers, tickling and clogging organs stressed by a meagre calorie intact and unsanitary living conditions. The work was hard but it fed their families, so the men kept their complaints to themselves. Navin coughed, fighting to control his ragged breathing. He cast fretful glances towards Ram Singh, willing him not to turn. Navin needed this job but understood he was ill. He had no idea it was his work which was killing him; him and his fellow stonemasons. Muffling his coughing in the crook of his elbow, Navin didn’t see the Maharaja approaching, untouched by the stark sunlight pouring through
by KIRSTEN McKENZIE Sarah Lester's mother is missing and the Indian uprising holds her father captive. The police want to question her, and even the church is demanding its pound of flesh. Her return to The Old Curiosity Shop raises more questions than answers. Waiting in the shadows is a vengeful Richard Grey. After discovering Sarah’s ability to travel through time, nothing will stop him from restoring his name to its former glory. Not even time. Can Sarah reunite her scattered family before Grey closes the doorway to the past?
the site, minions tumbling behind his impressive strides. ‘Are you ill?’ asked Ram Singh, the Maharaja of Jaipur. Navin froze. It was one thing to sneak glimpses of the Maharaja from afar, but to talk to him was unbelievable. He fought to control his coughing and shook his head, eyes watering from the effort. ‘ Give the man a drink,’ directed the Maharaja. A lackey ran forward with a cup of tepid water, which Navin gulped down. ‘Thank you,’ Navin mumbled, looking at the ground. ‘I see you are working on the Nadi Valaya Yantra. One of my favourite pieces. I’m fascinated by the connection between the northern and southern hemispheres, as represented by this piece.’ Navin could only nod because he knew nothing of its workings. Beyond recognising there were two sun dials adorned with large bronze tablets and decorated with words in Sanskrit, his only goal was to finish the stone as smoothly as possible. How it worked didn’t worry him. Navin’s eyes watered as he tried to stifle another bout of coughing, the strain casting him with a blueish hue. It wasn’t the violent sun changing the colour of his skin, but the silicosis destroying him from the inside out. ‘Here, take some,’ commanded the Maharaja, pulling a jewelled betel box from the folds of his robes and offering it to Navin. One of the Maharaja’s courtiers protested, but the Maharaja waved him away.
Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
Continue reading at https://www.amazon.com/TelegramHome-Curiosity-Shop-Book-ebook/dp/ B07TZDQ1MK
The first two books in the series:
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PIPER JOE AUSSIE-SCOT EVENTS
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@CarmelScotsNews Scots News Magazine December, 2019/January 2020
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
WHAT’S ON in DECEMBER and JANUARY
WHAT’S COMING UP in 2020
December 31 - Hogmanay
February 1 - Burns at Carlyle in Townsville.
December 31 - New Year ’s Eve Concert presented by Queensland Pops Orchestra at 5.30pm and 9pm at Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre. visit https://qldpops.com/ events.
February 1 - Burns Supper hosted by Toowoomba Caledonian Society and Pipe Band Inc.
January 25 - Burns Supper at the Fox and Hounds Country Inn at Wongawallan from 6pm. Visit www.foxandhounds.net.au.
February 29 - Scots PGC Solo and Mini Band Competition Mar ch 1 0 -I nter national Bagp ipe Day March 21 - Redlands Pipe Band Competition
January 25 - Burns Supper hosted by Ipswich Pipe Band
Marc h 29 - Brisbane Boys’ College Highlan d Gathering
Small Pipe learning and playing held at Milton on the first Tuesday of each month from 7pm. Contact Malcolm on 3820 2902 or Ken on 3279 4093.
April 11 and 12 - South Queensland Regional Committee of Highland Dancing Inc Championships of Australia at Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre at Carrara. Visit www.sqrchdi.com
Gaelic classes are held each month in Brisbane. Visit www.facebook.com/BrisbaneGaelic for details.
May 23 - Queensland Pipe Band Championships at Ipswich May 24 - The Gathering to be held at Ipswich Turf Club. June 27 - Tennents Tartan Day Tattoo at Fox and Hounds Country Inn at Wangawallan in Gold Coast Hinterland
INTERSTATE IN 2020 NSW April 4 - Brigadoon: Bund anoon Highland Gath ering April 10 to 1 1 - Maclean Highl and Gath ering
July 1 - Int ernation al Tartan Day Sep temb er 1 9 - Brisbane Boys’ C ollege S olo Pipi ng and Dr ummi ng C ompetiti on
April 30 to May 3 - Australian Celtic Festival Glen Innes
October 10 - Sounds of Scotland Concert presented by Brisbane Boys’ College Pipe Band
Jul y 4 - Aberdeen Hi ghlan d Games
November 30 - St Andrew ’s Day
VICTORIA March 14 to 15 - Ozlander Fan Gathering in Melbourne. Apr il 4 and 5 - Austral ian P ipe Band Championshi ps to be held at Princes Park Maryborough Victoria.
Wishing all our readers and advertisers a happy and peaceful Christmas with your loved ones. See you next year!
SCOTTISH TUNES AND CONVERSATION ON THE RADIO Join Ron Tannock every Thursday night from 7pm to 9.30pm and every second Saturday from 9am to noon for the Sounds of Ireland (and Scotland), on Burnett River Radio 91.5FM broadcasting to Gayndah and Central Burnett region. Colin Nightingale hosts Acoustic Harvest every second Thursday night at 8pm on bayFM100.3. Enjoy ‘A wee bit o’ Scotland on Thursday’ on 4EBFM98.1 from 2.15pm to 4.30pm. Scottish Program on Global Digital Radio (4EB) each Sunday from 2pm to 3pm. Triple T 103.9 Townsville Community Radio’s Scottish Program each Sunday from 3pm to 5pm with Don MacDonald.
Scots News Magazine December 2019/January 2020
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