St Andrews in Focus Issue 25 Nov Dec 2007 by Mike Collins

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

November / December 2007, Issue 25

the award winning magazine for St Andrews

£1.50

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William ‘Wille’ Bondolf, AD1333 Wille Bondolf’s fame rests on the simple fact that he is the only pilgrim who came to St Andrews during the Middle Ages who can be authentically identified by name. He was a cleric of the town of Dunkirk (The Church in the Dunes), who, in late 1332, or early 1333, killed a man called Andre d’Esquerdes. He was duly arrested and arraigned before the civil court there. However, the court were aware of two things; that he was a cleric, and that there were mitigating circumstances. They acted accordingly. Acknowledging that the ecclesiastic court of the diocesan bishopric at Saint-Omer a few miles inland were better qualified to deal with one of their own, they transferred him there. The trial determined that the deceased had an unsavoury reputation, being known for his violent provocative nature, was a brawler, and that Bondolf, finding himself provoked into a fight and fearing for his life, drew a knife and fatally stabbed his assailant in self-defence. After due process, the Court found him not guilty of murder, but of manslaughter. He was spared the death sentence. Yet however mitigating the circumstances were, the Court in its wisdom and mercy decided to impose a sentence, a necessary punishment, in three parts; to pay a fine of twelve livres; to have thirteen requiem masses sung for the repose of the soul of the deceased at his own expense, and finally, to embark on a penitential pilgrimage, on foot, and alone, to St Andrews in Scotland. They chose St Andrews for several reasons; appropriately it bore the same name as the deceased, and was the most renowned Pilgrim City in Northern Europe; it was perilously difficult to reach, and by dispatching him alone and on foot they were effectively writing his death warrant. It was to be Bondolf’s ‘expiatory trial of contrition and endurance’. However, Wille Bondolf did reach his destination, surviving the arduous journey. We know this because a strict condition of such penitential pilgrimages was the furnishing of proof of the actual journey. This took the form of pilgrim badges obtained at each shrine en route, where he prayed for the redemption of his own soul and that of d’Esquerdes. He presented himself at St Andrews to the Augustinian Prior of the Cathedral Church, John of Gowrie, furnishing the documentation of the Court at Saint-Omer, and proof of his journey. On the 29th May 1333, the Saturday before Trinity Sunday, finding Bondolf a model pilgrim and genuine in his contrition, John of Gowrie presents him with his certificate, certifying the fulfilment of the Court’s sentence. Departing by ship, on the 26th June 1333, he was back in Saint-Omer, presenting his certificate to the judicial authorities and being absolved from his crime. His final act was to seek the forgiveness of the relatives of the deceased, which apparently he received. Thereafter he slips into historical obscurity. His certificate still survives in the city archives of Saint-Omer. Bondolf is shown wearing the full Pilgrim’s apparel. The heraldic emblems of Dunkirk and SaintOmer are emblazoned on his cloak. The pennant on his staff bears the name of the man he killed; on another a dagger, a constant visual reminder of his crime. To his left, his story flanks him from bottom to top in continuous representation after the style of AD1333. Despite the reputation of the uncompromising harshness of medieval justice, courts were capable of articulating Christian mercy and fairness and it was not such a rare occurrence as is commonly thought. The experience of Wille Bondolf is testimony to that. Illustration & text: © Jurek Alexander Pütter 2007

St Andrews in focus • shopping • eating • events • town/gown • people and more

From the Editor Good old British weather, so reliably unreliable! Given this year’s apology for spring and summer, I thought it might perhaps be appropriate to reproduce a poem by Donald Cameron, which appeared in the Scots Magazine in June 1993, would you believe. It purported to be a father admonishing his child not to envy the friends who had gone off in the holidays to chase the sun, while everyone in Scotland was being soaked to the skin. It gloried in the only ray of sunshine anywhere to be seen, and that over Perth! It ended: Remember, child, this drookit earth Gave you a gleam of bright in Perth! Then, just as the schools went back and thoughts turned to Autumn, we had a glorious Indian summer. To remind us, as if we didn’t know, what a splendid place we live in, and lasting long enough for me and some of my family to gamble in the heather on Schiehallion, that magical mountain. Winter inevitably wins the seasonal contest. So, let me once again wish ane an’ a’ a wonderful Christmas and a reet guid Hogmanay! Flora Selwyn

******** The views expressed elsewhere in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor. NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2007 EDITOR Flora Selwyn Tel: 01334 472375 Email: editor@standrewsinfocus.com Designer University of St Andrews Reprographics Unit Printer Tayport Printers Ltd. Distributer Elspeth’s of Guardbridge Publisher (address for correspondence) Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Tel: 01334 472375 Email: enquiries@standrewsinfocus.com

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Contents Events • St Andrews Festival programme • Fun in the Garden • Messiah notes • Selected Events

4 5 6 7

Shops & Services • Tax fads & fancies • Wines Unfurled • Roving Reporter

8 9 10

Out and About • Earthship Fife

ORGANISATIONS • The AJR needs you • Byre Kids • ‘La plume de ma tante’ • St Andrews in Bloom

12 12 13 13

TOWN/gown • Student Theatre • Trip to China

14 15

Features • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

A birthday wish for Alex Morris! The jigsaw is complete Book Review: Girl in a Pink Hat Ask the Curator Lillias Forbes At the Cenotaph The Rebels Charlie Bachelor Carole Tricker The Community Council Golf today One who made good Fife – a philatelic view From Fife to America The birth of the Links Act recalled The computer swallowed Grandma! Soap Sandy & Tibbie rescued Toonspot A story for Christmas

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Please make cheques out to Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd and send them to: Local Publishing (Fife) Ltd., PO Box 29210, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9YZ. Registered in Scotland: 255564 The paper used is 80% RECYCLED post-consumer waste

NEXT ISSUE – Jan/Feb 2008 Copy deadline: strictly 28 NOVEMBER All contributions welcome. The Editor reserves the right to publish copy according to available space.

EVENTS

21st November – 2nd December 2007 Wednesday, 21 November

Tuesday, 27 November

7.30pm – Younger Hall, North Street. SCO concert. Conductor, Diego Masson. Piotr Anderszewski, piano. Music by Rossini, Schuman (piano concerto), Stravinsky, Haydn. Tickets from the Byre Theatre and St Andrews Music Centre at the Younger Hall. Contact: 01334 462 226.

7.30pm – Byre Theatre. Whistle Down the Wind, The Just So Musical Theatre (see p14). Tickets £7 (£6) Byre Box Office 01334 475 000. Online: www.byretheatre.com

Saturday, 24 November 10.00am – Meet at Holy Trinity Church, South Street. St Andrews Pilgrimage Walk, led by Rev. Dr. Ian Bradley. Free. All welcome. Contact: 01334 461 098. 11.00am-5.00pm – Victory Memorial Hall, Market St. The Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council, 9th Art & Photography Exhibition. Free entry. Contact: 01334 473 552. 5.00pm – At the fountain in Market Street. Grand switch-on of Christmas lights. Courtesy of St Andrews Merchants’ Association (see p7). 5.30-6.30pm – From South Street. St Andrews Festival Procession, with Madras College Pipes & Drums and Byre Youth Theatre. Free. All Welcome. 6.30pm – At the Harbour. Mulled wine and eats from 6.00pm followed by fireworks from the end of the Pier at 6.30pm. All, courtesy of Friends of the St Andrews Harbour. 7.00pm – Younger Hall, North Street. Handel’s Messiah. The St Andrews Chorus, Conductor Edward Caswell. Tickets: £9, concessions £7, students £3. Contact: 01334 462 226.

Sunday, 25 November 10.30am-3.30pm – St Andrews Botanic Garden, Canongate. Fun in the Garden (see p5). Explore, and take part in activities (some new, some old favourites) courtesy of The Friends of the Garden. Plant sale, refreshments. Free entry. Contact: 01334 475 383 (please see web for any possible last-minute changes: www.st-andrews-botanic.org). 11.00am-5.00pm – Victory Memorial Hall, Market St. The Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council, 9th Art & Photograph Exhibition. Free entry. Contact: 01334 473 552.

Monday, 26 November 11.00am-5.00pm – Victory Memorial Hall, Market St. The Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council, 9th Art & Photography Exhibition. Free entry. Contact: 01334 473 552. 12.30-3.00pm – Lochnagar Room, Mansfield, 3 St Mary’s Place. ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’. The University German Society. Enjoy coffee & cake. Also a cake sale. Entry £2.50 at the door. All welcome. All day – Throughout the town. University Raisin Monday. Fresher initiation traditions.

7.30-9.30pm – Madras College School Hall, South St. Ceilidh. University Christian Union. Includes talk on life of St Andrew. Tickets at the door £3. All welcome. 9.00pm on – Aikman’s Cellar Bar, Bell St. Informal Music Sessions, playing a wide range of styles. Contact: 01334 477 425.

Wednesday, 28 November 1.15pm – Younger Hall, North St. Lunchtime concert. Robin Mason, cello: Marilyn Boulton, piano. Music by Schubert, Piazzolla. Contact: 01334 462 226. 7.30pm – Byre Theatre. Whistle Down the Wind, The Just So Musical Theatre (see p14). Tickets £7 (£6) Byre Box Office 01334 475 000. Online: www.byretheatre.com

Thursday, 29 November 7.30pm (2.30pm matinee) – Byre Theatre. Whistle Down the Wind, The Just So Musical Theatre (see p ). Tickets £7 (£6) Byre Box Office 01334 475 000. Online: www.byretheatre.com 9.00pm on – The Pilmour Hotel, Pilmour Place. Informal musical sessions playing a wide range of styles. Contact: 01334 473 252.

Friday, 30 November, St Andrews Day 11.00am-12.15pm – Holy Trinity Church, South St. St Andrews Day Service. Guest preacher, a local drama group and choirs. Free. All welcome. Contact: 01334 461 098. 6.30pm – By Holy Trinity Church, South St. Beating the Retreat. 7.30pm – Holy Trinity Church Hall, Queen’s Terrace. Family Stovie Dance. Tickets £5 / £2.50 from church Offices: 01334 478 317. 7.45pm – St Leonards School Music Auditorium, The Pends. Edward Caswell, accompanied by Walter Blair sings Schubert’s Winterreise. Tickets £12 at the door. Contact: 01334 463 709. 8.00pm – Byre Theatre. The Music of Woody Herman. Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. Tickets £14 (£10 – £8) Box Office 01334 475 000 Online: www.byretheatre.com 9.00pm on – The Castle Tavern, North St. – The oldest Pub in town. Informal Music Sessions. Contact: 01334 474 977.

Throughout the Festival The British Golf Museum Bruce Embankment, 10.00am-4.00pm daily, Free entry. Contact: 01334 460 046. Byre Theatre Daily (ends 29th November). Katie Morag Art Exhibition. Contact: 01334 475 000 Or online: www.byretheatre.com Preservation Trust Museum North Street, 2.00-5.00pm daily from 24th November. 70 Treasures from the Trust. Celebrating 70 years of the St Andrews Preservation Trust. Artefacts from the collections that are rarely on display. Free entry. Contact: 01334 447 629. St Andrews Fairtrade Town Committee Competition, from 24th November – Spot the Certificate. How many Fairtrade supporters’ certificates can you spot? Look in all places that sell or use Fairtrade products. Small prizes for the winners. Local primary schools have entry forms. Contact: 01334 840 387.

Saturday, 1 December 12.00 noon – St Salvator’s Chapel, North St. Scots Fiddle Group. Director William Baxter. Contact: 01334 462 226. 1.00-4.00pm – Tourist Information Centre, 70 Market St. Fun Flavour of Scotland. Local musicians, food tasting, whisky tasting, face painting, and more. Please contact for details: 01334 472 021.

Sunday, 2 December 11.00am – Holy Trinity Church, South St. Christingle Service. All welcome. 3.00pm – The Old Course Hotel Ballroom. Youth Choir. Director Gillian Craig. Contact: 01334 462 226. 6.00pm – St Leonards School Advent Carol Service. All welcome. 7.30pm – Younger Hall, North St. St Andrews University Symphony Orchestra. Conductor, Ben Murray; Noé Kains, piano. Music by Shostakovich, Gershwin, Rachmaninov. Contact: 01334 462 226.

Please refer to the local press for any last-minute changes.

Friday, 30 November – Free Open Day at the following: •

R & A Building, 10.00-5.00pm. Guides on hand.

•

St Andrews Castle and Cathedral, 9.30am-4.30pm

•

Lodge St Andrews No. 25. Enter from South St. 2.00-4.00pm. Refreshments. Guides.

EVENTS Jean Kemp tells us that there is

Something for Everybody on St Andrews Sunday in the Botanic Garden Out of all the celebrations on offer in the town on 25th November, perhaps the most varied will be in the town’s renowned Botanic Gardens. At least fifteen different activities aimed at children, young people and families, will be on offer during the day. A stimulating and diverse programme organised by the Friends of the Garden in conjunction with the Education Trust, will offer something for everyone. • • • • • • • • • • •

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Celebration of the Scottish Spud – All Day. Local schools have been working with the Garden to conserve the Bishop, a local disease-free potato developed in the St Andrews University Botanic Garden about 1900; Anne Lightwood and Brenda Hunter will help you to make your own special prints using tatties! Herbs of Scotland – All Day. Medical herbalist Jay MacKinnon will show you how to make simple herbal remedies like teas, creams and salves – and will test your knowledge of medical herbs with a quiz! Scottish Toadstools – 11.30am & 2.00pm. Fungus hunting with local countryside Ranger Tony Wilson, using the Garden’s new ID sheet, make your own mushrooms afterwards in the Glass Class. With Thoughts of Christmas – All Day. Using Scots pine cones and seeds from the Garden, make a Yule Log for the festive season with Sheena Scott and Rosemary Story. Cost £2 Surviving a Scottish Winter – 11.00am. Accompanied walk to learn how plants prepare themselves for the cold, wet, drought, and wind of a Scottish winter, with former Chairman of the Friends, Professor Robert Crawford. Scottish Leaves and Trees – Louise Roger, Friends’ Chairman, will challenge you to match the tree (there are many beautiful Scottish trees in the garden) with its leaf. Forget the Scottish Winter – 2.00pm. Bob Mitchell, Curator, will demonstrate the richness and diversity of plants from South East Asia growing in the Temperate House – and also the links back to Scotland! Storytelling in the Potting Shed – From 12.00noon. Popular storyteller Senga Munro will be telling some of her Scottish favourites. St Andrews Sunday – Music – From 2.00pm.The Ferryport Fiddlers with Morag Anne Elder will play a Scottish Medley. Make a Bird Box – Many of our smaller birds need a helping hand to survive. Graham Kemp will help you to help them by making a bird box. Cost £6 Scottish Bumblebees – All Day.The Garden’s new wildflower meadow has created a haven for Scottish bumbies. Bridget England of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust will paint your face like a bee, and tell you how to attract these lovely creatures to your own garden. Thinking of the Future – All Day. Cutting down trees creates many problems for the environment. Disposable nappies contribute to the problem of disappearing trees. Louise Cruikshank of the Education Trust will demonstrate an alternative solution. Drama in the Garden – Returning to the Garden after the success of their promenade performance on the life of Carl Linnaeus in July of this year, the Byre Youth Theatre will be performing five scenes from the life of St. Andrew. The performance will be performed by their 9 –11 year-old group. Have you seen a Red Squirrel? – Derek Abbott, a Fife Ranger, will take you on a search for these endearing little animals, a couple of whom have made their home in the Garden. Chairman’s Sixth Annual Conker Contest – 3.00pm. The culmination of the day’s events! Everyone is invited to join in – conkers will be available to all combatants, but those serious about their challenge may bring their own specimens! A fabulous prize for the winner! Refreshments & Something to Take Home – All Day. Plants and honey from the Garden’s beehives will be on sale on this stall run by the Friends. Refreshments will also be available. But please see web for any possible last-minute changes: www.st-andrews-botanic.org )

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Anyone needing help with car parking or orientation or just wanting to know more about the programme, will find help at the gate from Donald Mason and John Wilson. The Botanic Garden Education Trust runs projects for schools throughout the year, as well as classes for adults and Junior Hortus – a club for young people. The Trust is revenue-funded by Fife Council and Scottish Natural Heritage. The Friends of the Botanic Garden run many events throughout the year in the Garden as well as supporting the Education Trust. For more information see: www.standrews-botanic.org

Fun . . . Xmas

wreaths

(Photos courtesy Mr & Mrs Kemp)

EVENTS Notes on the coming performance of Messiah, by Huw Lloyd Richards, Secretary of the St Andrews Chorus

‘Musick, the greatest good that mortals know. And all of heav’n we have below’ Joseph Addison The Messiah is one of the most popular oratorios Handel gave many performances ‘And Without Controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the Flesh, ever written. It has a special place among choral of Messiah and rewrote arias, societies. The music critic of the Yorkshire Post justified by the Spirit, seen of the Angels, or at least, reassigned them once commented that he could review more than preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the according to which soloists he twenty performances across the county every world, received up in Glory. In whom are hid all December. It has had a special place in the St the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge’ was able to engage Andrews musical calendar for many years under (1 Timothy iii, 16; Colossians ii,3) the baton of Tom Duncan at Holy Trinity Church, The St Andrews Chorus will perform the and we are grateful for his support this year The St Andrews Chorus will perform Messiah in the Younger Hall on November for a St Andrews Chorus performance in the the Messiah in the Younger Hall on 24th at 7.00pm Conducted by Edward Caswell, Younger Hall. November 24th at 7.00pm Conducted and the orchestra will be led by Alan Torrance. But is there a definitive version of the by Edward Caswell and the orchestra Other concerts this season include, Messiah? It is claimed that about ten versions Schubert’s Winterreise sung by Edward are discernable, since Handel was prepared to will be led by Alan Torrance Caswell accompanied by Walter Blair, at adapt his own work for different performances. St Leonards School Music Auditorium at 7.45pm this 30th November; The Dunedin Consort and Players under John Butt recorded the original Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle by the St Andrews Chorus on 1st Dublin 1742 version recently in 2006 (Linn Records), but there are other March 2008 at 7.30 in the Younger Hall; and Verdi’s Requiem on 16th subsequent variants. The publishers Novello, for example, will still provide March 2008 with the Dundee Choral Union and the orchestra of Scottish the Ebenezer Prout edition of 1901, and there are many cut versions Opera at 7.30 in the Caird Hall Dundee. available. However, Watkins Shaw spent thirty-six years studying all known sources and versions and his extraordinarily thorough work was The St Andrews Chorus welcomes new members. Rehearsals are on published by Novello in 1959. His work not only creates the best, and Friday evenings at St Leonards School Auditorium 7.00-9.15p.m. probably definitive and inclusive version, but because it is so thorough (from Friday, 28th September). it makes it possible to see what choices exist amongst versions. Our Musical Director, Edward Caswell, has had the task of deciding exactly For more details visit our website, www.saint-andrews.co.uk/sac which movements to perform and in several cases, which versions of Contact Huw Lloyd Richards, huw@taylor-richards.com those movements. Eric Priest, eric@mcs.st-and.ac.uk So the St Andrews Chorus Messiah will be uncut, including a handful of movements which will be new to some listeners, and will also contain some unfamiliar versions of movements, some of which date from the work’s 1742 premiere in Dublin. The soprano aria, How beautiful are the feet? for example, will be presented in its duet incarnation for soprano and alto, leading into the chorus, Break forth into joy. We will also be giving a shorter version of the great bass aria, Why do the nations? which ends with a short, dramatic recitative leading into the chorus, Let us break their bonds asunder. We make the highest quality reproductions from photographic Handel gave many performances of Messiah and rewrote arias, prints, any format film material, colour or black and white, or at least, reassigned them according to which soloists he was able negative or positive and digital sources. to engage. We will be presenting certain arias in ways that might raise eyebrows, all of which however, have the composer’s sanction. The highly dramatic, But who may abide? with its virtuoso, For he is like a refiner’s fire section, usually sung by an alto or bass will be sung by a soprano. She in turn, gives up her, Rejoice greatly, to the tenor. In Part II we will include the chorus, Let all the angels of God worship him, and the soprano version of Thou art gone up on high. And rather than making a cut in Part III after The trumpet shall sound, and restarting with Worthy is the lamb, we will be including the four movements recitative, duet, chorus and aria, whose texts Handel’s librettist, Charles Jennens, borrowed from the Anglican burial service. This section will culminate with the soprano version of, If God be for us. The earliest mention of Messiah comes from a letter dated 10th July 1741 from Charles Jennens, Handel’s librettist, (who selected the passages of Scripture for the Messiah), to his friend the Classical scholar Edward Holdsworth: ‘Handel says he will do nothing next Winter, but I hope I shall persuade him to set another Scripture collection I have made for him, and perform it for his own Benefit in We specialise in the restoration of old, faded or damaged Passion week. I hope he will lay out his whole Genius and Skill upon photographic prints and giclee printing of artwork on a variety it, that the composition may excel all his former compositions as the of paper types and surface finishes, to any size required. subject excels every other subject.’ Handel was persuaded, and for many of us, matched the Additionally we offer a wide range of photographic, excellence of the subject with his music. What can possibly have digital imaging, reproduction and duplication services. moved Jennens on 30th August 1745 to write, again to Edward Holdsworth: ‘I shall show you a collection I gave Handel call’d Messiah, which I value highly and he has made a fine entertainment We are located on Floor C of the Bute Medical of it, though not near so good as he might and ought to have done.’? Buildings and are most easily accessed from South The history of the piece contributes to the sense of any Street and through St Marys’ quad. We can be performance of the Messiah as new and thoughtful, whilst having contacted for service details and directions on the at its core the well-loved arias and choruses. It is, above all, a following numbers : 01334-463481 or 01334-463625. piece rooted in the tradition of sacred music; the preface chosen by Jennens reads;

Bute Photographic Unit

EVENTS

Selected Events Friday, 2 November – Boys Brigade Hall, Kinnessburn Rd. Ceilidh & Stovies Night; 1st St Andrews Boys Brigade. Saturday, 3 November – 9.00am-1.00pm. Argyle St. Car Park. Farmers’ Market. Sunday, 4 November – 4.00pm. St Leonards School Music Auditorium, The Pends. Concert. Florian Kitt, cello; Rita Medjimorec, piano. Music by Schumann; Debussy; Nigel Osborne; Liszt; Richard Strauss. The Music Club. Tickets at the door, £10, £9 concessions, £5 students, £1 children. Thursday, 8 November – 5.15pm. School VI, Old Quad, North Street, St Andrews. A Sure foundation? Research Libraries in the Digital Age, Inaugural Lecture for the Friends of St Andrews Library by Ronald Milne, Director of Scholarship & Collections at the British Library. Contact: Dr Alice Crawford, University of St Andrews Library, North Street. Saturday, 17 November to Sunday, 20 January 2008 – St Andrews Museum, Doubledykes Road. Cycling up the hill with my Dad: Father & Daughter; ceramics by David Heminsley, textiles by Claire Heminsley. A Fife Contemporary Art & Craft show. Saturday, 17 November – 10.30am-3.00pm. Kellie Castle. Shrub & rose pruning workshop. On arrival and in the afternoon, tea/coffee cakes. A hot lunch. All tools provided (please wear warm clothing). Inclusive price, £35. Advance booking: 01333 720 271. – 10.00am-5.00pm. Town Hall, St Andrews. Antique & Collectors’ Fair. £1, 50p concessions, children free. Contact: 01334 880 254, 01334 838 217.

Sunday, 18 November – 11am to 3.30pm. Cambo House, Kingsbarns (road, A917). Annual Christmas Fair with proceeds to CHAS. One-stop Christmas Shop with CHAS gifts and cards; Cambo’s Snowdrop Gift Shop; visiting food and craft stalls; craft demonstrations; seasonal refreshments. Further information: 01333 450 054. Also, www.camboestate.com Tuesday, 20 November – 8.00pm. School 1, Old Quad, North Street. Constantinople Water Supply – talk by Professor Jim Crow, University of Edinburgh (Archaeology Society jointly with the Scottish Hellenic Society). 20, 21, and 22 November – 7.30pm. Students Union, Market St. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard. Performed by the Just So Society. Tickets can be obtained outside the University Library building in North St. or at the door: £6 (£5). Contact Kieran: kh226@st-andrews.ac.uk Wednesday, 21 November – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North Street. SCO concert. Conductor, Diego Masson. Piotr Anderszewski, piano. Music by Rossini, Schuman (piano concerto), Stravinsky, Haydn. Tickets from the Byre Theatre and St Andrews Music Centre at the Younger Hall. Friday, 23 November – 7.30pm. St Rule Club, 11 The Links, St Andrews. Le Fonds Français, a talk by Christine Gascoigne, in French, on the University Library’s French books. Tea & coffee afterwards.

Saturday, 24 November Christmas Lights Switch-On Events – Market Street closed until 4.30pm, when there will be limited access only. – from 1.00pm Holy Trinity Church will have reindeer & birds of prey. – 2.30pm Church Square. Demonstration of Scottish Country & Highland Dance. The University Celtic Society. – 3.00pm Town Hall. Puppet Show. – 3.00- 5.00pm Market Street. Kingdom FM; Kiddies rides; Santa; Craft Stalls from Fife; Street Performers; Cake the Clown/ juggler; Candy Clown/ Stilt walker; Mr Fuzzy (Magician); Captain Hook; Clown Skooter (balloons Puppets etc); Brass Band; Chestnuts, Mulled Wine, Sausage Rolls; Local Choirs singing Carols.

Sunday, 9 December – 8.00pm. Younger Hall, North St. University Chamber Orchestra. Music by Arriaga, Schubert, Beethoven. Contact: 01334 462 226. Saturday, 15 December – 4.00pm. Younger Hall, North St. University String Orchestra. Music by Telemann, Haydn, Tchaikovsky. Contact: 01334 462 226. Wednesday, 19 December – 7.30pm. Younger Hall, North St. Music Society Chorus & Windband playing Christmas music & old favourites. Contact: 01334 462 226. Monday, 24 December – from 3.00pm. Holy Trinity Church, South Street. Last of the Christmas shopping opportunities, so come along (even with your shopping!) and share festive cheer and carol singing! Contact: 01334 461 098.

SHOPS & SERVICES Andrew Wright muses about

Tax Fads and Fancies How often do you hear a politician justifying a particular tax regulation because it ensures a “level playing field” between taxpayers? And yet how can this be so when tax policy is so often used to promote a particular political aim, encouraging some while discouraging others? One such aim used to be to provide a business environment where small businesses can flourish. Thus, small businesses were encouraged to trade as limited companies rather than as sole traders or partnerships, through a favourable tax regime. In general, small businesses also enjoyed a relaxed regime on income sharing within family firms. And these incentives seemed to work with an impressive growth in the small business sector and reasonable opportunities to grow and benefit the local economy. This now seems to have changed, perhaps because too many small

businessmen were perceived to be avoiding tax by taking advantage of long-standing opportunities (perfectly legal and hitherto unchallenged by the Inland Revenue) such as paying salaries to wives (or husbands) whose work input into the business was minimal, or by paying minimal salaries and large dividends, thereby avoiding national insurance contributions. This particular political aim now seems to have been abandoned. The last two or three years has seen a significant increase in small business corporation tax and continuing increases in red tape and compliance requirements. The latest example of this was the Government’s reaction to losing the “Arctic Systems” tax case in the House of Lords. In what could be interpreted as a fit of sulks, the Government stated the next day they were to bring in legislation to change the law so

Safety Panel

that it reflected their view. As our elected representatives they are entitled to do this, but they are likely to make a fundamental change to the taxation of small businesses, and particularly to the sharing of income between husband and wife. The reason they gave for this proposed change was that the existing law was being used by some to gain an unfair advantage over others (i.e. not a “level playing field”). It’s all rather confusing, and in the meantime the small business community, and especially those who were persuaded by earlier policy to incorporate, feel understandably aggrieved. For further information on this, or other matters, please consult: Henderson Black & Co. 149 Market St. St Andrews. Tel: 01334 472 255

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Open every day from 12 noon Friday and Saturday nights open extra late Delivery service (St Andrews only) 131 South Street, St Andrews Tel. 01334 470400 www.oneoone.co.uk

Fresh Turkeys, Geese, Ducks and Chickens etc will be available from our usual reliable sources for the Christmas period. Please order early.

SHOPS & SERVICES David Harlington, Director of Wines Unfurled

Wines Unfurled

“Flora Selwyn will be delighted to have an article from you about ‘Wines Unfurled’” – so said Fiona Richmond, co-ordinator of Slow Food UK in Ludlow, and graduate of St Andrews University – “especially if you mention your St Andrews’ connections!” Apart from the St Andrews University connection with Fiona, it so happened that the very next week I was going on a reunion trip to France with three old undergraduate friends. We first met in 1964 and have remained close friends ever since. During our time at St Andrews a marvellous new hotel was constructed on the site of the old St Andrews railway goods yards. The Old Course Hotel had many critics from the armchair architects, but we were delighted to be able to celebrate our graduations in style at the grand opening ceremony. A kindly waiter advised us in hushed tones that on the next table there sat Egon Ronay, pretending anonymity as he slowly appraised the sumptuous ‘fayre’ carefully placed before him. It is good to see that David and Irene Harlington by Eugenie’s forty years later, in 2007 The Old Course Hotel has been awarded three Bridge over the Adour at Saubusse Rosettes by the AA. are losing their local character. Marino Aldrighetti of Gamba, our wine Wines Unfurled is a brand new retail wine company established with producer with 14 hectares of vines in the Valpolicella Classico region, my son, Jerome, and represents wine producers who espouse the Slow said recently that he had been approached by such a flying wine maker, Food values (see issue 15, March/April 2006, page 10), remembered but this time he resisted the temptation to change the character of his in the three words “Good, Clean, and Fair”. Our wines are good, wine to suit the average palate of the generic customer. they taste delightful and have been produced by wine makers We at Wines Unfurled actually go out and look for emerging and with a passion for making the best wines they can. They interesting wines ourselves, building friendships are clean in the sense that the stewardship of their own with producers and buying directly from the vineyards and the care of their surroundings vineyard, helping these small growers to is paramount. Wines Unfurled is fair in the ‘unfurl their wines’ in the UK. Our wines Fair Trade sense of that word, as the are ‘real’ wines made in traditional ways producers gain a fair return for their wines and by producers who are eager to and the customers feel they’re getting conserve the character of their wines. good value for money. Real wines tell their own unique story; Jerome’s career so far has been in the initial sip takes us on a journey to the the UK wine business with Majestic and heart of the wine region from which they Mentzendorff. He holds the Diploma in come. Then follows the unfolding layers Wines and Spirits and has worked alongside of flavours which tell us a bit about the some of the world’s most celebrated wine weather conditions experienced that year, producers and Masters of Wine. Recently, Wines Unfurled is fair in the Fair and also much about the ground and rock he has become aware that the increasing Trade sense of that word, as the where the vines were planted. Finally, with tide of simple factory wines is reducing the time to savour, the flavours linger on the diversity of flavours and tastes available on producers gain a fair return for their palate and tell us a bit about how well the the shelves. Indeed, without any prompting wines and the customers feel they’re wine maker has harnessed the natural at all from me, my brother-in-law, amateur environment to produce the best the wine sleuth Barry Staples, was saying last getting good value for money region has to offer. night that during his constant search for Good wine works best with good food. interesting wines he felt that “even in the Each of our producers is teeming with advice about the best food and specialist wine shops all wines were beginning to taste the same”. wine pairings. Not surprisingly, their favourite foods tend to be found Nowadays, the “flying wine makers” have the skill to blend wines to locally to them. We are very interested in finding local food pairings suit the tastes of their customers, who are very thankful that consistently with our wines wherever our customers are. How many times have you good-tasting wines can be found in their favourite supermarkets and returned from a holiday abroad with a bottle of wine and tried to repeat a wine merchants. However, there is an acknowledged danger that wines marvellous food and wine matching experience with disastrous results? It is also perhaps surprising to find that there are chefs in some prestigious restaurants who are passionate about sourcing their food from local suppliers, but yet spend so little time researching their portfolio of wines. Our interest in the Slow Food movement is not accidental. It focuses on finding sources of good food locally and I was excited to find at the Ludlow Food and Drink Festival a range of foods produced locally to Ludlow which perfectly matched our wines. I’m sure that in the St Andrews locality, the same can be said! We are committed to encourage you, the wine lover, to delve a little deeper into the world of ‘real’ wine and experience a taste of the variety on offer. Jerome’s wife, Carrie, has recently come on board to manage the website and organise tasting workshops led by Tim Wood, who is a tutor for the Wines and Spirit Education Trust. He has also just completed his prestigious Master of Wine exams and is a natural at describing food and wine matches made in heaven. We pride ourselves on our personal and friendly service. If you’d like to find out more, please give us a call, we’d love to Jerome Harlington, hear from you, and please do visit our new Brian and Jane Griffiths, Susan and Managing Director, website: www.winesunfurled.co.uk Roderick Ball by the river Adour, Saubusse Wines Unfurled

SHOPS & SERVICES

Roving Reporter 1.

Anyone for Tennis? at 8-10 Bell Street isn’t a shop anyone can just walk past! So in went Roving Reporter and met Kate Stephenson, its vivacious entrepreneur. Kate is a Yorkshire lass with a degree in Biochemistry from Durham University and a recently completed Masters in Environmental Biology from St Andrews. She’s also a vintage clothes enthusiast who says, “Much as I enjoy the sciences, I’ve always had a real passion for clothes, be it the flower power of the ’70s, gorgeous ’50s evening dresses, or beautiful 1920s accessories – anything that has a history

and is unique”. Reporter thought himself in a kind of time warp; there were bags, hats, jackets, dresses, and skirts galore – all reminiscent of Reporter’s past, but Anyone For Tennis? isn’t just a vintage clothes shop, it also stocks a range of fancydress accessories. Having been a student here, Kate is clued up on Union and Society themed events, but she doesn’t cater only for students; children as well as adults can be kitted out here, and she’s quite happy to order specific things in, if she doesn’t stock them already. Prices start from just £1 for fancy-dress accessories and £5 for vintage clothes. Opening hours are: Monday-Thursday and Saturday, 9.30am-5.30pm; Fridays 10am-7pm. “There’s a high turnover of stock, with new things coming in every couple of weeks”, says Kate, “so it’s worth popping in often”.

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2. Ever curious, Reporter got in touch with Murray Donald Drummond Cook LLP to ask what their plans were for the property they now have in Bell Street. Practice Administrator, Stephanie Johnston, kindly replied: “Due to their rapid expansion, the leading law firm, Murray Donald Drummond Cook LLP, have acquired larger premises in Bell St. Work got underway at the former Oxfam site in August and the opening is planned for December. The new one-

stop shop will bring together the successful Legal, Property Sales and Letting teams, along with the Firm’s Mortgage and Insurance advisers. Murray Donald Drummond Cook has 11 partners with offices in St Andrews, Cupar, Anstruther, and Leuchars, providing a comprehensive range of legal services. One of the largest law firms in Fife, it now has around 100 legal, financial, property and support staff, with expertise in private client work, trust and investment management, corporate and business law, commercial, rural and residential property, charities, business, and litigation”.

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3. Reporter took this photograph of the newly-(but still unfinished) painted premises which used to be a well-known shoe shop in South Street. The gentleman on the ladder, who was interrupted by Reporter, kindly gave contact details and this is what Donna wrote: “BLT Financial Services have recently expanded and opened a new office in South Street, in addition to the offices they currently have in Cupar. The North East company began six years ago, as the founders wanted to offer a Financial Advice service that was fully independent. Financial Adviser Harry Black will be based in St Andrews He has over 15 years’ experience in the field and holds specialist financial qualifications in Equity Release and Long Term

care. He can also advise on Inheritance Tax, planning, and moving money into trusts, and alerting people to the options available to them. Harry is happy to meet clients on a no-obligation basis, and will discuss with them the areas of financial advice they require, allowing the client to remain in control. BLT Financial Services believe that the fact that clients return time and time again and also refer new clients, shows the level of service that is being provided. Home visits arranged at a time to suit clients is also an attractive option for those who are unable to make appointments during normal working hours, and shows the flexibility of our service. Other areas that BLT Financial Services can advise on are: Pensions, Mortgages, Health Insurance, Inheritance Taxation issues, and Investments. If you want to find out more about the services that are on offer why not call into 47 South Street and have a chat with Harry. There is no need to make an appointment and all our advice is impartial.”

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OUT & ABOUT Esmond Tresidder – “I work here as the Visitor Centre Officer, running the Earthship and all the activities described in the article. I’m leaving in two months though to start an MSc in environmental architecture. I’ll be returning to run the staff away-days next summer”.

The fascinating Earthship Fife Visitor Centre in Kinghorn . . . – one of the most ecological buildings in the UK, being used as the hub for an exciting programme of activities for businesses and the public. The Earthship is a demonstration ecohouse built from waste materials. It is a fully autonomous building – meeting the power, heating, water, and sewerage needs of its inhabitants without resorting to power generated from fossil or nuclear fuels. The Earthship walls are built from old car tyres and aluminium cans and are designed to work as “thermal mass” and store heat gained through the south-facing windows. The building is powered by a small scale renewables system; a small wind turbine sits atop the hill behind the Earthship, solar panels adorn the front and a small hydro turbine harnesses the power of a stream nearby. All the water needed in the Earthship is harvested from the roof and treated on site, the water is used several times before being treated as waste water in contained planter beds, which are used to grow food.

The Earthship Fife Visitor Centre is run by Sustainable Communities Initiatives (SCI), a small Scottish charity set up to demonstrate innovative ideas for waste minimisation, and sustainable living. In the long term SCI would like to build a zero waste zero energy Earthship community somewhere in Scotland, but for now they are focussing on expanding the attractions and events at the Earthship, and expanding their highly successful Creative Waste Workshops in the community. The building’s capacity as an educator and as inspiration is far-reaching, and the centre is extending the services on offer to the public. These include “Green Living Away-Days” for companies wanting to raise environmental awareness in their organisations, with fun and dynamic days out for their staff; and “Power to the People” workshops, investigating small-scale renewable technologies. Both of these workshops have proved very popular so far, with feedback from participants being overwhelmingly positive. The Earthship can also be booked as a unique meeting place for organisations.

The Earthship is open seven days a week (closed Mondays until April) to drop-in visitors, school groups, professional groups, and for hour-long tours. The Earthship can also be booked as a unique meeting place for organisations. For more information go to www.earthshipfife.org.uk or email, inquiry@sci-scotland.org.uk (Photos courtesy Earthship Fife)

ORGANISATIONS Michael Newman explains why

The AJR needs you! needs of our members, our highly It is not every day that you will read about developed Outreach Programme an organisation, whose membership has an enables our members with average age of 82, on a recruitment drive, but similar backgrounds a unique at the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) opportunity to meet and share we are actively seeking to reach out to new their experiences. We already members and offer them the extensive services operate we already provide to 3,500 40 groups members nationwide. We already operate throughout the Founded in 1941 by Jewish 40 groups throughout country including refugees from central Europe, the country including gatherings in the AJR has accumulated more Glasgow and than 60 years’ experience gatherings in Glasgow Edinburgh and attending to the needs of and Edinburgh and we we have members living Holocaust refugees and have members living throughout Scotland. survivors. Today, membership throughout Scotland The AJR also organises is extended to all Jewish victims weeklong group holidays for of Nazi persecution and their members in different areas of the country, the families and the AJR counts as its members, former refugees from all Nazi-occupied AJR’s Central Office for Holocaust Claims provides advice and assistance on restitution countries. and compensation and we look after the In addition to our team of dedicated social interests of the Kindertransport. care workers, who attend to the day-to-day

AJR meeting, Edinburgh (Photo courtesy AJR)

Interested? Find out more at www.ajr.org.uk or call us on 020 8385 3070.

David Orr introduces

Byre Kids “Brillliant!” was how 9 year-old Jamie described this summer’s production make their own show using of Wolves in the Walls by the National Theatre of Scotland at the Byre our ministage, costumes, Theatre. After a hugely successful summer that also featured Roald and props! Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine, the fun for children hasn’t stopped, For a birthday party with a difference try with much more on offer this autumn / winter! our fantastic children’s Are you a budding young actor or actress? Have you been inspired unique birthday parties, to try acting? The Byre Youth Theatre is an excellent group to help you for child, friends & family unleash the actor or actress within! Meeting during term time, every to remember! Tuck into week, for 3 to18 year-olds the Youth Theatre is a very popular class our tasty children’s party food and choose from a selection of and often holds productions in the main auditorium at the Byre, most party themes, including theatre & dance. The kids will love it recently George Orwell’s, Animal Farm, in 2006. The Youth Theatre offers and so will you! The Byre Bistro is a family-friendly venue with a much more than this, for it is a great way to meet new friends, improve special menu featuring a range of food to satisfy all kids! While confidence, and team work, as well as being a lot of fun! your order is being prepared our colouring-in menus will entertain For the youngest supporters of the Byre we have the brand new “Byre and encourage the artistic side in all our Teenies” class for 0-6 year-olds. Two classes young diners! every Wednesday from 10am, lasting 45 minutes, The Byre Youth Theatre is an Back to the main stage, and this include; drama, story telling, and dance, amongst excellent group to help you unleash Christmas we have popular children’s other activities. For a child and adult the price of the actor or actress within! character Katie Morag arriving at the the class is only £6. Booking is essential as the Byre from 6th – 29th December. A play class is proving to be extremely popular! These originally commissioned by Mull theatre on the writings of Mairi classes will often take place in our new children’s play area. There have Hedderwick – in a special new version for the Byre Theatre. been numerous developments at the Byre over the years and this is one Katie Morag comes to life in a musical show full of fun for all of the most colourful! While mum & dad relax with a coffee, the kids can the family. Travel on the ferry to Struay to meet one of the bestloved characters in children’s books – Katie Morag McColl. She may live on a tiny, weather-beaten island, but there’s plenty of mischief to get up to, and Katie Morag is always up to something! Two American children come with their mum to discover their roots in Scotland…but the island is not to their liking. Katie Morag can’t believe how spoiled they are – and the visitors can’t believe how few shops Struay has! But as they get caught up in a treasure trail, Katie Morag and the visitors soon learn that appearances can deceive… Meet Eriska the horse and the mischievous Struay cats, stumble across ancient ghosts in spooky places, and help Katie Morag find the answers to the riddles. If you are interested in any of the above then please call 01334 475 000 for booking or further information. The Byre Theatre: “Brilliant” for children!

ORGANISATIONS Margaret B. Sutherland, President, St Andrews Branch of the Franco-Scottish Society

Oh, for ‘la plume de ma tante’! Will this be the cry of students in senior secondary classes of four north East Fife schools as they enter the French Essay Prize competition, organised by the St Andrews Branch of the FrancoScottish Society? (Detailed information has been sent to the schools invited to take part.) The underlying purpose of the competition is to encourage the study of French in schools, and make learners feel that they can express their own ideas in that language. Competitors have a choice of two subjects; they can write about their own impressions of France, or explain to a French correspondent why

he/she would find a visit to Scotland interesting. (Perhaps tourist agencies – in both countries – will discover useful materials in the essays!) There is a word limit of 500 words; and there are three prizes – £50, £30, and £15. Of course the essay must be in the learner’s own words, not those of a helpful relative, however well-meaning. We look forward to some interesting reading. See Events (p7) for details of up-coming meetings of the St Andrews FrancoScottish Society.

Carolyn Miller

St Andrews in Bloom

01334 478396

Gift Vouchers available

Orders now being taken

Christmas Hampers, Panettone, Prosecco……. Torrone, Grappa, Olive Oil and much, much more……

on cleanliness Wandering around our wonderful • Most importantly we need in and around medieval town this summer, did you – some extra volunteers!! the town, you realise that the beautiful Anyone out there who can recycling and colourful tubs and hanging help with either funding, fund (thank baskets that suddenly appeared raising or as hands-on with goodness at – were due to the efforts of the planting – we would love to last we have our own small and passionate St Andrews hear from you. centre) biodiversity, community involvement, in Bloom committee? • We guarantee no straw hats eco schools and projects, and last but not least, Three of the members, and smocks need to be worn public awareness – all of which involves a lot of Carolyn Miller, Jill Hardie, and and no special skills needed, work . The judges were very impressed by all Jenny Sibbald, with the help of just enthusiasm. of these and we succeeded in some kind and willing volunteers, gaining a 4-thistle award – 5 have worked tirelessly and We were thrilled We were thrilled that enthusiastically planting and that the tubs the tubs thrived so well thistles being the highest. none of this year’s effort maintaining the tubs and baskets thrived so well and that the overall would have been possible that have enhanced the town with their and that the overall reception reception in the town without the help of our colourful display. The colour scheme of pinks in the town was so positive “volunteer friends” and we and silver were chosen to coincide with the – very many people stopped was so positive are also indebted to Jim Breast Cancer Awareness colours, as this to comment, and we want to Drummond and his amazingly helpful team was the chosen charity of the Women’s thank everyone. Such has been the response of groundsmen in the University Estates British Open golf week. that we were told off whilst we Department, who gave us time and muscle After careful consideration, were dead-heading, because The colour scheme of whenever we needed it. Our watering wizard, a strict time limit and budget, someone thought we were pinks and silver were Tony Chatto, did a great job with all the baskets it was decided to enhance stealing the plants!! chosen to coincide and tubs – even at 5am in the rainstorms. areas that catch the eye of St Andrews was entered next year perhaps we may achieve the 5 visitors when they first enter under the “coastal resort with the Breast Cancer thistles with your help the town. Other areas were category” in this Awareness colours, as – so Please, Please, chosen for the pleasure of the year’s Beautiful this was the chosen we would love your local population, residents, and Scotland 2007 charity of the Women’s HELP – COMMEnTS businesses. competition, which and IDEAS. British Open golf week It is hoped that this year’s was judged on a effort can be improved on even lovely sunny day Do get in touch with more with the help of more funding, and at the end of July – yes we did have Carolyn Miller at donations from local business and charitable the odd one this year!! The judging 27 Church Street, funds to enable us to enhance and brighten criteria for this is very high and St Andrews on: up more areas of our great town for next judging is on a number of elements, 01334 460 640. year. not only colourful flower displays, but

www.thelittleitalianshop.com

TOWN & GOWN Kieran Hennigan, is a 4th year Geography student, but “more appropriately I am Productions Manager for ‘Just So’, and a theatre enthusiast! What’s more, ‘Just So’ are celebrating their 21st birthday this season.” She puts….

Student Theatre in the Spotlight How much do you know about student theatre in St Andrews? The all types of student theatre in answer (unless of course you are a student) is likely to be, ‘not a lot’. As St Andrews, more and more a 4th year student, I have seen anywhere between 30 and 50 different productions will hopefully go on The Wild Party – April 2006 productions in my time here, and missed countless more. The fact is to perform at this high level. that the quality of theatre produced in St Andrews by the student body Another upcoming is often outstanding, with many of our shows subsequently going to the production worth a mention is, Edinburgh festival. Unfortunately, due to one-dimensional publicity and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern limited resources, the public in St Andrews has often been unintentionally are Dead, being performed at excluded from this thriving arts scene. This is all about to change. the Student’s Union on the 20th, ‘The Just So Society’ is spearheading a move to bring Gown Theatre 21st and 22nd November. This to the town. This Society specialises in musical theatre, and has had play by Tom Stoppard, set in and a tradition of putting on highly successful shows in recent years, such around Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, as, The Little Shop of Horrors, Anything Goes, and Assassins. This is one of the most celebrated comic plays of the 20th Century. semester’s musical, Whistle down the Wind, based on the novel by Mary Many student productions Hayley Bell, is the first of its kind in the town, as it includes students and like this are performed within local schoolchildren working together in a professional arena. Although Children rehearsing the Student’s Union, or other the production team are all students, children make up nearly half the actors in the show. They have been rehearsing since May, ready for University buildings, because of financial constraints and a lack of the performances on the 27th, 28th and 29th alternative venues. However, these productions November at the Byre Theatre, and so far they are by no means exclusive to the University ‘The Just So Society’ is have shown great commitment and promising community. Tickets for all student shows are spearheading a move to bring generally sold outside the University Library talent. Set in rural Lancashire in the 1950s, Whistle during the week of the show, and would normally Gown Theatre to the town be available on the door. down the Wind centres on the three Bostock Check out the Mermaids’ website: www.merfund.co.uk, or the Just So children, Cathy, Nan, and Charles, who discover a man they believe to be website: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~justso/ for details of all past and Jesus Christ. When word spreads, more children from the village come present productions. to worship the stranger. Fearing his persecution, they shelter him from the eyes of the adults, who are hunting an escaped convict. Tickets for Whistle down the Wind: £7 for adults, £6 for concessions, from When they are betrayed, the the Byre box office, or visit the website: www.byretheatre.com children must risk everything to protect the man they have (Photos courtesy The Just So Society) grown to love. This intense and beautiful show is expected to be The Just So Society’s most successful musical to date. With the support of the town, and the backing of the new committee at the helm of ‘Mermaids’, who govern Broadway Baby – April 2007

Evening Degree Programme Keen to get a degree? Too busy to study full-time? Try the flexible route to your MA General degree at the University of St Andrews via the Evening Degree Programme • One or two evenings of classes per week • Broad range of subjects • Credits for existing qualifications • Fee Waiver scheme for people on low income or state benefits Find out more from: The Evening Degree Co-ordinator

Telephone: 01334 462203 Email: parttime@st-andrews.ac.uk www.st-andrews.ac.uk/admissions/Eveningdegreestudents/

TOWN & GOWN International Baccalaureate student Francesca Cassidy plans to use this article as part of the CAS element of her course.

St. Leonards School China Trip 2007

On 14th July this year, seven students and two teachers from St Leonards School, bravely set out on a daring voyage. We flew out to Beijing in order to take part in a Mandarin Immersion course organised by the British Council. It was a truly brilliant experience and I am going to pick out some key parts to illustrate how worthwhile a trip it was. First and foremost, the lessons. Each group was allocated a room in the High School where we were staying, and every day we would have two lessons with different teachers. Over the next couple of weeks we learnt some of the basics (including the very useful phrase “Tai gue la” which means “ Too expensive!”) and the not-so-basic, for example “Wo ai Beijing’s Tian an men”, a patriotic song about Chairman Mao. As well as our language lessons we learnt how to paint Beijing opera masks, how to folk dance the Tibetan way and learnt about the different types of music enjoyed in the many regions of China. I think the second most important thing to talk about (and I’m sure Miss Semper will agree) is the food. In Beijing we experienced the good, the bad, and the just plain weird. ‘Good’ in my opinion would be the city’s speciality, Peking Duck, which we saw being cooked on our last day. ‘Bad’ would be the cabbage and tofu soup, and I think everyone will agree that fried starfish and grasshopper kebabs constitute ‘just plain weird’! We were also taken to see some of China’s most famous places, including Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, and the Great Wall, all of which were breathtaking. The ancient architecture in the Forbidden City is spectacularly ornate and delicate, the emperors of China were certainly living the high life when it comes to dwellings! Unfortunately we were not able to experience the Great Wall at its most magnificent because of the haze. Though it was baking hot throughout our visit, the pollution and smog made the visual conditions very difficult.

Scorpions and seahorses

Nail bar

Group photo on the Wall

We flew out to Beijing in order to take part in a Mandarin Immersion course organised by the British Council

On top of all its other merits the trip was a great way to meet new people, not only our young Chinese helpers Kris and Robert, who showed us around and generally looked after us, but the other students from schools all over Britain. We also were assigned Chinese penpals with whom we spent the day. With so many good bits it is difficult to choose the best one, but for me it was our visit to the Houhai district to see the old Chinese streets called hutongs. In the Houhai you really get a sense of China, with its old buildings and incredibly well-navigated rickshaws. And the worst bit? Probably the mosquitoes. (Photos courtesy Francesca)

Paper boats

Yummy puddings (Left: Francesca; Right: Elizabeth Semper, Head of German)

Group photo in the Forbidden City

FEATURES/BOOK REVIEW

The jigsaw is complete!

Be well, be happy, celebrate!! Alex Morris

was profiled in issue 11 (July/Aug 20 05). On 25th November he reaches his century.

St Andrews in Focus wishes you, Ale x, a very, very Happy Birthday. May you enjoy every moment of your special day, together with your family and friends.

Mr John Birkett of St Andrews kindly phoned with news of the provenance of the poem, The Golf Widow’s Lament (see issue 23, July/Aug 2007). He tells me that it was by Musselburgh man, Johnnie Ritchie, published in Musselburgh in a book called Poetry in Motion in 1985. Mr Birkett, who owns a copy, says it contains some 26 poems by the same author on a variety of themes. Since Johnnie Ritchie (who, incidentally, was born in 1912), was a devoted member of Musselburgh Golf Club, it is not surprising that the subject of golf figures prominently. Mr Birkett sent me a copy of the original poem, which is actually called The Gowfer’s Wife. It differs a little bit, not least in having an extra verse between the two printed in St Andrews in Focus. I guess it’s a case of Chinese Whispers! Thank you very much Mr Birkett – and thank you again Mr Robertson for initiating this interesting quest.

Dr Veronica Smart reviews:

Girl in a Pink Hat by Nanzie Mcleod (Published by nanzie McLeod, Glasgow, 2007 @ £9.99) Two new books of local interest have recently appeared. Pittenweem author nanzie McLeod tells us that she did not begin writing till she became a grandmother, and that telling stories provided her apprenticeship. Since then she has entertained us with a number of titles infusing family memories with imagination. Her most recent book, Girl in a Pink Hat, is a new departure in two directions: her medium is the short story, and her milieux range further afield. Scotland is present, of course, but Canada and Japan become the settings for other stories. Many of these tales spring a surprise on the reader. Relationships are not what they seemed at the beginning, and one wants to go back and search for the clues which would give the game away. In some other stories it is only at the last moment that the viewpoint of the narrator is revealed. The women in the book are particularly well rendered, often recovering their own lives after a repressive relationship. In all, a varied and intriguing read.

Invite you to visit a hidden treasure in the heart of St Andrews

WOODLAND & WATERGARDENS HERBACEOUS & SCREE ALPINES & RHODODENDRONS GLORIOUS GLASSHOUSE COLLECTIONS OPEN DAILY ALL YEAR ROUND ST ANDREWS CELEBRATION Sunday 25th November CHRISTMAS PLANT SALES IN THE GREENHOUSE Saturday 15th & 22nd December 10am-12noon WINTER LECTURE PROGRAMME 1st Tuesday each month 7.30pm Chemistry Dept., North Haugh, University of St Andrews FREE – ALL WELCOME TO JOIN THE FRIENDS AND SUPPORT THE GARDEN CONTACT MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY. Canongate, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8RT. Tel: 01334 476452. www.st-andrews-botanic.org

FEATURES Welcome back, Lesley-Anne Lettice, Assistant Curator at St Andrews Museum! Once gain you can . . .

Ask the Curator Q. Can you tell me who designed Madras College please? A. The architect was Edinburgh-born William Burn (1789 – 1870), one of the leading architects of his day. Burn pioneered the ‘Scottish Baronial’ style and designed many Scottish churches, country houses, and public buildings, including Blairquhan Castle in Ayrshire and the Melville Monument in Edinburgh. Possibly one of the main reasons for choosing Burn was that he had recently designed two acclaimed scholastic buildings in Edinburgh – the Academy and John Watson’s Part of Burn’s remit for Madras College was to ensure that the design was in ‘harmony’ with the remains of Blackfriars Chapel. His initial plans were for a singlestory building, but these were rejected by the founder, Dr Andrew Bell, who wanted a more imposing two-storey façade. The final design featured a five-bay, two-storey north frontage with mullioned windows, fancy gables, and other adornments. Dr Bell died on 27th January 1832. The foundation stone was laid on 9th April 1832 – his birthday. The first part of the building opened its doors to pupils on 1st October 1833. Q. Can you tell me where the name ‘Burgher Close’ comes from? A. The name comes from the old ‘Burgher Kirk’, which occupied the west side of the close from 1774-1826. After Presbyterianism was officially established as the Church of Scotland in 1690, Episcopalians and other non-conformist groups existed under severe restrictions. Within the established Church, there were also divisions. In 1733 a ‘Secession’, or break-up of the Church took place. Those who had broken away from the main Church became divided amongst themselves because of a dispute over an oath in 1747 and took the names ‘Burghers’ and ‘Anti-burghers’. The former group organised a congregation in St Andrews in various meeting houses, including an old barn in Imrie’s Close. In 1774 they moved to No 141 South Street – in the area now known as the ‘Burgher Close’. The Burghers opened a small chapel at No 52 North Street in 1826. Then, in 1865, a new church – Hope Park – was built. The congregation was known successively as Burghers, United Secession, United Presbyterian, and United Free until 1929, when it returned to the fold of the Church of Scotland. Q. Can you tell me when the Victory Memorial Hall opened? A. The building was originally St Mary’s Church, built in 1839 to accommodate the overspill from Holy Trinity. It passed out of use as a church in 1909 when Holy Trinity was re-modelled. It was owned for many years by the British Legion, but was gifted to the town in 1971 for use as a community hall. It was almost completely reconstructed in 1951 – the Trustees had to apply for a building licence as wartime restrictions on materials were still in place. Incidentally, the original 1839 building was designed by William Burn, architect of Madras College.

(Photos: Flora Selwyn)

FEATURES/MUSIC Chatting to Flora Selwyn, Lillias Forbes recalls

“A complete inheritance in music” Sadly, Erik Chisholm died aged 65, and Born the second When she was about 16 years old, Lillias “I came home. I brought my mother to a house of the four children started performing her father’s songs. She also of Francis George went to Glasgow University, where she gained in St Andrews, in North Street.” After her Scott, Lillias grew her MA. Although she subsequently trained as mother’s death, Lillias opened an art gallery up between the a teacher at Jordanhill, Lillias wasn’t attracted (with a café) in Falkland. On a “lovely, lovely wars in the midst of to the career. However, she went to France for summer afternoon,” Lillias met John Forbes, a fervent Scottish a year as an assistante in 1949. “I loved travel,” then teaching music in Madras College in musical and literary St Andrews. “I had just says Lillias, who wanted to revival which unyoke herself, as it were, bought a clarinet,” says Lillias has never ceased seemed centred within her own home. All the from her family, “I wanted Lillias, smiling, and John being a passionate great names of music and poetry of the early to discipline myself to do was a talented woodwind promoter of her father’s 20th century, Bartok, Schoenberg, and above player who could also without the influences of music, especially his songs. all, Hugh MacDiarmid, suffused the young play the violin. They were home” (which nevertheless Lillias with their genius. married for 19 happy years. she loved deeply). By this A Borderer, F.G. Scott had music in his Lillias has never ceased being a time she was writing a great deal of poetry and blood from the beginning. As a schoolteacher passionate promoter of her father’s music, joined the Saltire Society. She was to be the he taught the young Christopher Grieve, who especially his songs. In St Andrews in 2003, St Andrews secretary of the Saltire Society for was to become famous as Hugh MacDiarmid, Gillian Craig arranged a concert at the Younger twelve years, and remains an active member. and who was to be his ‘blood brother’, writing Hall in which Alan Watt sang The Ballad of Erik Chisholm, who had brought Bartok the poetry that inspired the music Scott to Glasgow, returned on a visit from South Kynd Kyttock. And Angela Bell on another composed. Lillias was deeply immersed in the Africa, where he was then Professor of Music occasion gave a recital of a collection of the excitement, in the never-ending discussions, in Cape Town. He proposed to Lillias, and in songs. This April, to Lillias’ great delight, and, of course, in the music. “We were a very 1962 they were married in Cape Town. Lillias’ SignumClassics produced a CD, entitled singing career blossomed. She felt she was in loving family,” Lillias says, “in the evenings we Moonstruck – songs of F. G. Scott, on which her element, singing her father’s songs, as well virtuosi Lisa Milne, Soprano, and Roderick would sit and read or listen to music.” At the as those of Schumann Williams, Baritone, accompanied on the piano same time she adds that by Iain Burnside, perform 32 songs. It is a her father “had a dominant “I had a tremendous life, I was or Brahms, accompanied by her husband, “and I personality. We were aware revelation! surrounded by musicians, loved Hugo Wolf’s songs Although she continues to write poems, of it.” people I could understand.” many with a contemporary theme, Lillias has, In 1935 the family too.” Once more she was since about 1990, started to write plays, “of began to holiday in totally immersed in music, “I had a tremendous life, I was surrounded by St Andrews, a “great treat.” There was an art varying quality and length.” Till now, none has gallery at the top of the Bauhaus building in been performed on the stage, though there has musicians, people I could understand.” She told North Street, where Lillias would sometimes been much praise, especially of her writing in of one episode: in mid-song (it was Hert’s Sang, act as receptionist. A strong friendship had Scots. In fact, at the moment there is talk of her own poem set to music by her husband) developed with Willa and Edwin Muir, whose making an opera of The Swats o’ Barleyboozle, when the sheet music flew into the orchestra son Gavin was a gifted pianist. Lillias recalled a retelling, set in Falkland, of Alphonse pit. It was scooped up and brought back, all that when he was seven years old he was able Daudet’s story of the discovery of Chartreuse! the while she continued to sing, ending with a to play Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Lillias is on the verge of finishing writing a flourish on the piano by her husband! Though memoir of her father and his circle, while Lillias claims she would be nervous during the ear. Lillias herself found the piano too difficult; framed pictures on the walls of her home testify day before a performance, “the minute I got up her preferred instrument was her voice, she that Lillias is also an accomplished artist. explains. on the platform, I had no nerves at all!”

Ian Seeley

At The Cenotaph And is the world a better place For all that sacrifice – The very best of friends who ran the race With me but failed to share the prize; Spitfired to eternity, charred and cindered; Others to the sea’s cruel depths consigned; Some by belt-fed field gun hindered – – Slaughtered, marked, and left behind? I wonder, would you like things now, My friends; the tyranny of age, and callous youth Who have no inkling of the high price paid so That they might indulge themselves and be uncouth At will, with rights to damage self and others Now so lightly taken by the powers that be? You’ll never know, my combat-vanquished brothers; You’ll never know the disillusionment; you’ll never see What has emerged from all your trials – they say It was a blessing – yes, but truly mixed, and things, No doubt, were set for worse had not we won the day. A moment’s silence; I’ll not forget. My memory strings Out all the things we shared. It’s lonely now; so much has gone Of what we held most dear. Life charges on In seeming contradiction of that peace For which we strove so valiantly. It’s ease Of mind that now eludes my life – and why? For this I fought. For this I watched you die.

FEATURES: MUSIC Marjorie Richardson recalls a band called

The Rebels (guitar), and Sandy Smith (guitar), came “Music and memories are everlasting in the and went. hearts and minds of each and every Rebel that was a part of this fun rock band. We went In 1961 the first of the Crailers was our separate ways in business and music. We recruited. George Taylor joined the band continue to remember the great times playing on rhythm guitar, and was soon followed to full houses – it was wild and sometimes by handsome singer Robert McKay frightening. A few have kept in touch, and when (Kayser). Kayser was famous for his we get together we reminisce. Every player sexy rendition of Elvis’ Old Shep, and had his own unique characteristic that the rest Del Shannon’s Kelly. Eric Morris (drums) had to deal with – this is the M.O. for every joined and enticed Dave Pinder (lead band that ever was, ‘You can play great music, guitar) to follow and complete the Crail but can you get along?’ You had to be a rebel contingent. What started off as a St Andrews band now contained four Crailers! at heart to fit in here. Thanks to Ian Gordon, wherever he is. We will remember those Rebels The coast influence, however, did not end there, other musicians drawn to the Rebels were Drew who have passed on.” (Eric Morris, David Muir (keyboard) from Colinsburgh, and Tam Pinder). Anderson (guitar) from Pittenweem. Eric’s contribution above about says it all, I The Rebels had a big following and had have added here and there to his story. regular bookings at Perth City Hall, Kinross The Rebels must have had the biggest Town Hall, Blairgowrie Town Hall, and many turnover of musicians of any band anywhere. more. There was the odd Glasgow booking, or They started as five St Andreans under the North East of Dundee. The band van regularly leadership of Ian Gordon (Berry). Ian was parked at transport cafés very much the Rebels’ lead at 3.00am on a Sunday singer as well as organiser, The music was loud and morning, ordering the financier, and van driver – he raw, which reflected the truckers’ meal of double had a magnetic personality, personalities of the band eggs, beans, and chips. especially with the ladies! The The band also played every local press once reported him Tuesday and Thursday at the St Andrews Jiving as being the Cliff Richard of St Andrews. Ian, and Sandy Fraser the bass player, were the Club, which was held first in the Congressional Church Hall in Bell Street, and later in the O.E.S real stalwarts and steadying influences during Hall in North Street, both venues now gone. turbulent times. Sandy had his own appealing Another important person in the Rebels’ characteristics with his Elvis-style blonde hair story was Congregational Church Minister and permanent wide smile. John Guyer, whom the band referred to as The music was loud and raw, which ‘manager‘. At that time Rock ‘n Roll was very reflected the personalities of the band. There was much infighting, many resignations, and anti-establishment and seen as a bad influence sackings were a regular occurrence. Three on the young folk of St Andrews. John Guyer, Gatherum brothers (drums), Jackie Paul being a bit of a rebel himself, was very pro

rock music. He loved to see the young enjoy themselves at the Jiving Club. Every Monday evening after rehearsals, the band was invited to the Manse for strong percolated coffee and chocolate biscuits, to discuss next week’s bookings and band problems. These meetings with the band gathered around John in the dimmed light of the Manse living room, with his calm intellect and soft-spoken manner, were good for a group of non-conformists. These meetings would have been outrageous to the average churchgoer of that time. Unhindered by public opinion, John took the unprecedented step of allowing the Rebels to play at a church service once a month. The music was always slow ballads and quiet instrumentals, which seemed acceptable to the congregation. However, after a few months of this, John decided the congregation needed ‘pepped up’ a bit and decided it was time for the band to play ‘Jailhouse Rock’ at a service. This proved, however, to be a step too far, and two members walked out of church. Later, John moved on to a parish in Easterhouse, where he continued with his ground-breaking ideas of involving and attracting young people to the church, an activity commonly used today.

From Kate Chaundy, of Quite Great Publicity.

Charlie Batchelor – local girl works with top producer! Over recent years we have been spoilt for choice in the amount of across our very own Charlie. She didn’t fail to fantastic Scottish musical talent that has emerged. And so it is with no make an impression – Phil loved the earthy surprise that a new fresh female scene has entered the stage, but this tones of her singing voice and thought it a time from our very own St Andrews. great idea to take Charlie into the studio and Born here in 1988, Charlie Batchelor has always been overtly have her sing on a number of songs that musical, with a remarkable singing voice that, for some reason, had would be known as the ‘Charlie project,’ and previously gone undiscovered. A Fife girl at heart, Charlie’s voice exudes see how they turned out. He conscripted Celtic warmth and amazing style, and she pursued an education in a many established musicians such as subject that stole her heart – music. She left St Andrews to further her drummer Blair Cunningham, who has played studies down south, where she enrolled on a Music Technology course at with The Pretenders and Paul McCartney, the West Suffolk College. She excelled and had the wonderful opportunity and singer Marit Bergman, a major recording to be taught by guest lecturer Phil Harding. star in Sweden. The You may have heard of him – he once was the result, of course, is the Charlie Batchelor chief engineer for The Clash and went on to have extraordinary album by has always been enormous success in the ’90s with artists such as Caro featuring Charlie overtly musical, with a Banarama, Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Boyzone, and Batchelor, entitled ‘The 4th Way’, out this month. remarkable singing voice East 17. Indeed, Phil Harding produced Stay Another Charlie cites her major influences as KT Tunstall, Day, East 17’s Christmas No.1. Phil began working Carin Round, Mama Cass, and Jeff Buckley. Indeed, in the music industry at the tender age of 16, starting at the Marquee one of the tracks on the new album is Hallelujah, the Leonard Cohen Studios alongside some of the world’s top producers – he was literally song so memorably interpreted by Jeff Buckley. She counts among her watching history in the making as he got the chance to witness some of favourite bands, Simon and Garfunkel, Plyphonic Spree, James, Biffy music’s top albums being compiled. This early training stood him in good Clyro, and Idlewild. She loves performing live too, and she is currently on stead for what was ahead! As Phil Harding progressed in his career, his tour in the southeast of England doing acoustic sets. In addition, she has list of credits began to mount. He had the opportunity to work with the been invited to perform in session by a number of local radio stations. likes of The Clash and the newly formed production team Stock/ Aitken/ For Phil Harding, it was another chance to get back into the studio Waterman. With the help of Phil, they spawned such hits as the Number 1 and do what he does best. After leaving PWL (Pete Waterman’s studio) single ‘You Spin Me Round’ by Pete Burns, still a club favourite today. back in the ’90s, he was regarded as the best in the business. This is Following on from such achievements, Phil decided to relay some of evident in the production of the new album – Charlie has earned rave his knowledge and tips to aspiring young students interested in entering reviews with comparisons to legendary bands such as Fleetwood Mac, the competitive world of the music industry. It was while he was helping and fellow Scot KT Tunstall. Keep your eye out for this girl – the journey of out with a student-scripted show at West Suffolk College that he came fame has just begun. You heard about her here first!

FEATURES Carole Tricker . . .

“PlayRight!” Playwriting began as a hobby, Carole said. “I started running Stage One – the youth section of the St Andrews Play Club in 1982. I just couldn’t find any plays suitable for all the children to perform.” The logical step, therefore, was to write her own. Carole’s apprenticeship had its origins while still at school in England and as a member of the Greenwich Youth Theatre. She went on to gain an Honours degree in Geography, with Drama as an option, at Sheffield University, where she met her husband Alan, also well known in the world of theatre. Teacher training followed, then a year teaching in Sheffield. Work brought Carole and Alan to St Andrews nigh on 34 years ago. Recently, Carole has been seconded to teach at Dundee University’s School of Education where among other things, she teaches drama to trainee teachers. The first play for Stage One was Morgianna Wins Through. Based on the Ali Baba theme, it presented the girls’ perspective – “we had a ‘Losers’ (1992) Pamela Robertson, Brenda Hunter lot of girls,” was the wry comment! Carole wrote the lyrics, which were is Vice-Chairman of the Byre Writers Group, meeting once a fortnight. set to music by Dave Curtis for a cast of 30. Performed at the Byre for Former members, including Chris Dolan, Viv Adams, and Jan Natunsan a week, it was a great success. Three more musicals followed, Waggon have gone on to write for TV soaps, as Boys; Good for the Soul; and Night Wind’s well as getting plays staged in Dundee, Cry, with music by the late Ken Horton (Wendy Work brought Carole and Alan to Glasgow, and Edinburgh Quinault’s father). Willy Russell (writer of Blood It costs a minimum of £5000 to mount St Andrews nigh on 34 years ago Brothers and Educating Rita) encouraged an amateur production of a play – much Carole immensely by singing some of her lyrics more for a musical. Costs include the hire of the theatre, costumes, at a writers’ course she attended. As a result, another musical is in set, lighting, theatre staff, advertising and scripts. There is no public preparation, based on a teacher’s last day at school entitled subsidy, so ticket sales need Mr Downing’s Last Day. to cover everything. Luckily the For the most part, Carole writes cast perform for the love of it! comedies. “I like to write what I Productions have to have that know, based on my experiences,” necessary box-office appeal. but not, Carole assures us, about Carole’s latest play, Some of my specific people. “I think about it a Best Friends are Women, is about lot – it’s in my head, then the writing “a book-reading group...a few comes quickly.” However, rewriting bottles of wine...and a couple of afterwards takes time. At the initial men”: topical subjects everyone rehearsals of her plays, Carole will can relate to, leavened with wit. hone and correct until she is satisfied. Catch it at the Byre from 15-24 For her one serious play, Mata Hari, November (see below). Carole immersed herself in research, “A play,” wrote John Dryden which included a trip to Holland to in 1668, “ought to be a just and Mata Hari’s birthplace. “It took me, lively image of human nature, maybe a year, to research it, and I representing its passions and was very pleased with it.” As Carole humours, and the changes of points out, people love a story about fortune to which it is subject, celebrity! for the delight and instruction of A course Carole ran for the mankind.” Carole Tricker’s play St Andrews Play Club, aptly named, surely fits that bill! ‘Acting for the Terrified’, covered voice production, acting technique, (Photos courtesy Carole Tricker) ‘Open House’ (1987) Peter McInnes, confidence building, and everything Sandra Skeldon, Helen Rorison needed by the aspiring actor. Carole

Viva Escocia’ (1989) Kate Tunstall, Anna Quinault, Helen Rorison, Peter McInnes

FEATURES Kenneth Fraser, Chairman of the Community Council

More powers for Community Councils? I once received a letter addressed to “St Andrews Council”. It was from a visitor criticising the state of our pavements, so I passed it on to Fife Council. The writer (like many others) evidently believed that St Andrews still possessed its own Council with powers over such matters. In fact Community Councils have no powers at all. But there have occasionally been proposals to give them some. If we read the manifestos of the various parties, it seems possible that a change might take place. The S.N.P. declares that a public consultation should be held on setting up stronger Community Councils, each corresponding to a local government ward (as St Andrews already does). They might be allowed discretion to decide on the destination of a percentage of local government spending, perhaps £30 per head of population. Labour state that they support the role of Community Councils in expressing the views of the community, and that they aim “to give local people more power”. While they have no proposals to increase the powers of Community Councils, these words suggest that they might not object if such a proposal were

made. The Conservatives suggest that local authorities should consider allocating budgets to Community Councils so that they could act in local interests, but they do not spell out what these should be. The Liberal Democrats assert that local bodies – which might or might not be Community Councils – might be allowed to take on some of the functions of local authorities. These might include managing “local libraries, parks, sports facilities, and other spaces and services”, with a devolved budget. The Greens say that they favour giving Community Councils decision-making powers over “local responsibilities such as street furniture and green spaces”, with the necessary budgets. Taking all these policy statements together, and considering the strengths of the parties at Holyrood, it appears that there would be a majority in the Scottish Parliament for granting some modest powers to Community Councils, or at least for considering the possibility. This would be a significant change, which would make the Council into a quite different body from what it is today, and perhaps some future occupant of the Chair may have to grapple with it.

David Roy reviews today’s state of play.

19th Century Golf in 21st Century Scotland in this country, has resulted in an impressive Having worked in the golf industry since 1982, increase in ‘year-round’ play unmatched in I always find it interesting to reflect on how much has changed and at the same time, how any other sport. Twenty-five years ago, green little life has changed, for the Scottish golfer. keepers could work on courses uninterrupted The most obvious is the massive improvement by golfers from October until March, but now in club and ball technology that is often they must work tirelessly to provide playable commented on, with experts stating that golf conditions 365 days per year for golfers well has evolved way beyond anything that Messrs protected from the elements. Couple this with Braid, Vardon, and our burgeoning retired Taylor would recognise. population and it is The optimist in me looks to In addition to this, the easy to see why most the success of the Ladies shorter working week clubs have experienced and early retirement of a vast increase in Professional game and the the working population rounds of golf played, excellent ‘Club Golf’ scheme compared to what was have dramatically increased the number normal two decades for junior golfers to revive of people able to trudge ago. the sport’s ailing fortunes across their favourite If this is the case, links. In addition, there why then are there are two inventions that have made a more persistent stories in the press explaining dramatic and lasting legacy and are usually that golf is in the doldrums with dwindling quite ignored. These are the miracle fabric, memberships and stagnant growth? The fact Gore-Tex, and the rather more straightforward that these stories are largely true is alarming, Electric Trolley. It is all very well being able to especially as there are yet more very high whack a two-piece ball 35 yards further and profile golf courses due to be opened in straighter with metal woods and cavity-backed Scotland next year, including The Castle irons, but having to do so lugging a heavy Course, The Renaissance, Machrihanish bag during a rainstorm wearing the nylon Dunes, and Castle Stuart. If the investors of waterproofs and rubber shoes of the 1970s, the these projects have done their homework, what game would no more be enjoyable. do they know that most Private Member clubs The fact that golf has become eminently in Scotland do not? playable by golfers with dodgy backs, during the One answer may lie in the way in which long cold and wet winters we are blessed with clubs choose to govern themselves, which

in many cases has altered little in the last hundred years. It is certainly true that many clubs are now employing trained and skilled green keepers, properly provisioned to prepare golf courses in a manner that was only found at the very wealthiest clubs until recently. However, any increase in revenue that the resultant ‘all-year play’ brings is more than wiped out by the investment required to sustain this situation. This leaves clubs constantly struggling to invest in other areas that have been proven to bring the rejuvenation that is desperately needed, including marketing, junior golf, and member services. The optimist in me looks to the success of the Ladies Professional game and the excellent ‘Club Golf’ scheme for junior golfers to revive the sport’s ailing fortunes. Both are examples in different ways of how the game has a broad appeal and can provide a platform to bring much-needed younger participants to the game. Should this not be the case and clubs continue to be run in the same way that their grandfathers were used to, the result will be a continued fracturing in one of Scotland’s most important leisure industries, which is a situation that suits few people save the Donald Trumps of this world, and there are probably too many like him doing well enough already.

FEATURES Flora Selwyn chatted to Alexander Blyth and found out what it’s like to be a Big Issue seller.

One who made good Alexander grew up in Glasgow. His a valued life”. Alexander’s name was put on Fife Council’s housing mother died when he was four – “I still list. Eventually successful, Alexander now has a place of his own in miss her,” he says, sadly. Then, when St Andrews. For the first year he was allowed to go on selling the Big he was sixteen, his father also died. Issue to help with the rent and get settled. Then, out of the blue, he was Alexander and his three older sisters had told there was a vacancy as a Fife Council Public Convenience Attendant. little between them, so they decided the Alexander applied – “the interview felt good” – was told within two hours only solution was to go their separate that he had the job – “and I felt great!” Selling the Big Issue is no fun. Out in all weathers, often without the ways and do the best they could, ”which is prospect of shelter overnight, it can be a very demeaning experience; quite hard when you’ve got no income.” Having no qualifications either, Alexander tried various routes, but in “it puts you down,” says Alexander. And quite often it prejudices people the end found himself homeless and destitute. Selling when trying to find work. There is no training for the Big Issue gave him new incentives and new hope. sellers, Alexander says you are expected to use your Selling the Big Issue To earn money from the scheme, however, Alexander own initiative. Over time – and Alexander had three reckons you have to sell between 50 and 100 copies gave him new incentives years of it – you build up regular customers and every day. The magazines each cost 30p to buy, sell ‘learn on the job’. and new hope for £1, and only a percentage can be kept. Out of that Today, Alexander thinks himself lucky. Once a comes food and, when available, shelter. Sometimes week, to keep fit, he organises a team for the six-ait takes three days to sell 100 magazines. It doesn’t require much side football tournament at the University Sports Centre. And he keeps imagination to understand the logistics of trying to make a living that way! his eyes open for opportunities to earn more money – permitted by his Council contract, provided he informs his boss. “I was sleeping in hostels, on people’s floors, and even in the street.” I once talked to a university graduate who was selling the Big Issue in Then, someone contacted the charity, Cornerstone, on his behalf. The aim of Cornerstone is “to enable people who require our support to enjoy Peterborough; “it can happen to anyone,” he said.

Alistair Lawson, illuminates

Fife – a philatelic view The Countryside Column has a quiz question for readers: how many times has the Fife countryside been represented on UK postage stamps? How many philatelically-minded readers are there, who feel challenged by the question? The story begins on 4th September 1964, when two stamps – 3d and 6d values in old money – were produced to mark the opening of the Forth Road Bridge. How ironic that, after only 43 years, the bridge is now threatening to fall down again. In the background of the 6d value is the railway bridge, still going strong after 117 years! These stamps were of particular interest to philatelists, in that they were issued both with and without phosphor bands; these were at the experimental stage, and the Post Office first used them on commemorative stamps in 1962, the purpose being to assist automated sorting machines in identifying whether mail was sufficiently prepaid, and also in ensuring that the franking fell on the correct corner of the envelope. At that period, there were more of the ordinary stamps issued, so collectors look twice at any Forth Road Bridge stamps that come their way, in order to see whether they bear the phosphor bands. Due to a printing error, some of the 6d value were issued with the light blue shade missing, and it now

costs several hundred pounds to acquire one of these. Fife’s next appearance on the nation’s mail was in 1970, when a set of four values was issued, illustrating the theme, ‘British Rural Architecture’. The 5d value, the most used one, since that was the standard letter-rate at that time, showed a couple of typical harled Fife houses, one side-on and one end-on, also showing an outside stair and craw-stepped gables. The design reflected faithfully the houses of Culross and also of the many coastal villages in the East Neuk. The Post Office was commendably even-handed in selecting the designs for the rest of the set, which showed Cotswold Limestone construction on the 9d value, Welsh Stucco (1 shilling) and Ulster Thatching (1/6). Again, there were printing errors, and our 5d harled houses appear with either the grey-black or the greenish blue shades omitted. There were several ‘near misses’ for Fife, in that, in the 1960s and ’70s, the Post Office depicted Edinburgh Castle, Dounreay nuclear plant, the Cairngorms, St Giles’ Cathedral, Charlotte Square, Robert the Bruce, Robert Burns, David Livingstone, and WaIter Scott, as well as commemorating the 1964 International Botanical Conference held in Edinburgh, the 1970 Commonwealth Games, also in Edinburgh, and the 650th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Arbroath. There were other Scottish themes, but we had to wait some time for the next recognisably Fife-specific design. In the meantime, other countries had depicted Scottish personalities. The old USSR had celebrated Robert Burns on two 40 kopeck values in 1956, the USA had depicted Andrew Carnegie on a 4 cent stamp in 1960,

but possibly the earliest of all – and there is a distinct Fife connection here – was Chile’s 5c stamp away back in 1911, showing our Admiral Cochrane. This was not because of his Culross connections, but because of his role in helping the Chilean navy throw off the imperial yoke of Spain. Wha’s like us? Perhaps readers would care to take a hard look at the UK Post Office’s offerings in the period from the ’70s to the present and see what other Fife-related issues they can come up with. Hint: when did the R&A appear? Finally, a thought for the future: although we have had Scottish definitive issues for many years (and Wales and Northern Ireland have had their equivalent) we have yet to have a uniquely Scottish commemorative series, conceived, designed, printed, and issued in Scotland, primarily for Scottish use. Mr Salmond ... powers from Westminster? (Stamp pictures courtesy Alistair Lawson)

FEATURES Angela Montford, on the story behind a serendipitous discovery

‘In Universitate S. Andreae… Quondam Alumnus’ – From Fife to America and Surgeons of London on 23 The Latin words of the title are carved on the headstone of a grave in November 1709. This was a time Boston, Massachusetts, and caught the eye of my son whilst he was when extra medical men were being sightseeing at the end of a business trip to America. Like me, Andrew recruited to assist during the War of graduated at St Andrews, and was intrigued enough by his unexpected the Spanish Succession (1702-13), or find to take a photograph, which he brought to me to translate: ‘Queen Anne’s War’ as it was called in “Here lie the remains of D[ominus] James Halkerston of the noble America, where the British Navy was Halkerston family of Rathillet born in the County of Fife in the one-time Kingdom of Scotland. He was among the North British at S. Salvator’s also involved in fighting the Spanish College at the University of St Andrews. Serving with the unconquered and French. Two examinations would British Royal Navy for several years he earned a well-deserved reputation have had to be passed before James could be admitted to the Navy, in the company of eminent surgeons. In this town for five years he was confirmed by another printed certificate issued by the Office of the Sick happy in the practice of medicine as well as surgery and also enthusiastic and Wounded on 1 December 1709. in the art of pharmacy. However, to the grief of his fellow citizens he James’ first posting was to the famous three-decker ship Royal was prematurely seized by death in the prime of his life during a rising Sovereign on which he served two short tours of duty. This new ship epidemic of smallpox (a disease striking down many in New England). carried 780 men and 102 guns, and became so well known that in He ceased to be on 15th day of June A.D. 1721, aged 36. In most loving Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift included a reference to the height of its mast. The naval surgeon was to inspect new men on board to establish memory, this stone was placed here by his sorrowing wife Margaret.” Rathillet is a small hamlet north of Cupar, where the Halkerstons were whether they had any disease and if they were fit to serve in the navy, the local lairds. The most famous, or infamous, member of the family was as well as treat illness and battle wounds. A dispensary and an area set undoubtedly David Halkerston or Hackston, Covenanter, conspirator, aside for operations were often well down the ship on the airless orlop and onlooker at the murder of Archbishop deck, while the sick bay consisted simply of a Sharpe at Magus Muir, near St Andrews, on very cramped row of hammocks on the lower Research in St Andrews 3 May, 1679. He was executed in Edinburgh deck. The Monk’s Prize to which James was in 1680 for his part in the murder, his body appointed in July 1710 was a much smaller University registers found that hung, drawn, and quartered, and his head cut ship than Royal Sovereign, being a French James Halkerston of Rathillet off. One of his hands is buried in a grave still privateer captured as a war prize in 1709, to be seen in the church in Kirkgate, Cupar, began his degree studies in 1698, carrying 90 men on board and fewer than alongside the heads of two other Covenanters. 20 guns. Following this appointment James graduating BA in 1701 James Halkerston was likely to have been a moved to HMS Squirrel in 1711, a larger ship near relative, but David cannot have been his with 118 men and 24 guns. father, as there is an entry in Cupar parish recording the birth of James A tantalising discovery was a letter dated 20 April 1711, written to the Halkerston in October 1683 to George Halkerston and Isobel Smyth. In Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Navy Office only a week after James’ October 1697 George Halkerston, brother of Mr William Halkerston of appointment to the Squirrel, asking leave to resign from the Navy as Rathillet, was factor to Old College, St Andrews University. he had been left an estate in the country by a lately-deceased relative. Research in St Andrews University registers found that James There does not appear to be a Halkerston will in the Scottish registers Halkerston of Rathillet began his degree studies in 1698, graduating BA that fits with the date of 1711, but the person who left James the estate in 1701. There were about 100 students at this time and a history of Fife could have borne another surname. James Halkerston, Chirurgeon, was written in 1710 stated that St Salvator’s College, which James attended, finally discharged from the Navy as he requested, on 2 May 1711, when had ‘a Provost, three Regents for teaching philosophy and one Regent the Squirrel had arrived in Boston, Massachusetts. Presumably James who teaches Greek and one Regent who teaches Latin’. John Halkerston saw the career opportunities of the burgeoning colony, and decided also appears in the register of students at St Andrews, graduating BA to establish himself there as a physician. On 17 October 1719 he was between 1707 and 1710, and MA in 1711. In 1740 one John Halkerston married to Margaret Hubbert by the Rev Benjamin Wadsworth, pastor of was noted as a surgeon apothecary in St Andrews. Was he, perhaps, the First Church of Boston. The marriage of a Christopher Halkerston in James’ younger brother? Boston in 1742 also appears in the genealogical records, so this may well As St Andrews was not teaching medicine at this time, James would have been their son, born c. 1719-21. have left after graduation to serve a medical apprenticeship. A sevenA virulent epidemic of smallpox in 1721 devastated the city, drove year apprenticeship would be the normal term and James Halkerston’s most of the citizens to flee their homes, and brought death to James Halkerston. During this epidemic, a Boston preacher, Cotton Mather, certificate to practice as a naval surgeon was awarded by the Barbers suggested the use of inoculation, a practice he had learned from his African slave Onesimus. The physicians in the area received letters from Mather urging them to inoculate their smallpox patients, but only one was convinced to use the technique, the precursor of vaccination. All the others, presumably including James Halkerston, were against the proposal, but they were to be proved wrong. Over 842 of Boston’s population died, but only 2% of the 287 people inoculated died. Things might have been different if James had submitted himself to the experiment, but he was one of the uninoculated fatalities, and was laid to rest in the Granary Burying Ground in 1721. Whether further research will manage to unearth anything about James Halkerston’s career remains to be seen. His wife Margaret, only recorded by their marriage, disappears from the genealogical records. Maybe another trip to Boston might lead to the discovery of her gravestone alongside his, or to some further record of Christopher Halkerston, which could link him to James and Margaret. James Halkerston, this son of Rathillet, travelled far from his home, and died too young, but his short life spanned some remarkable and interesting times in war and peace, in Scotland, at sea and in colonial America. His memory lives on through the words that his wife chose for his tombstone, still to be seen in a graveyard 3000 miles from Fife.

FEATURES Sandy Rutherford --

Recalling the birth of the 1974 Links Act An obituary in the national press, coinciding with the recent Local Council, in-fighting over the question of transferring Scottish, and Welsh Parliamentary elections, rolled back the years for the Burgh assets to the new District me to a period of no little controversy (and public debate) in the political Council. At the outset, I remember that of affairs of St Andrews and North East Fife – all of it well documented in 12 Councillors, 8 were in favour of handing everything over, and only 4, those in the The Citizen at that time. That I was a central figure in that controversy will Rutherford camp (including Robert Jones), come as no surprise to those who know me! The trigger was the implementation of the Local Government reform wanted to find other options. By dint of put forward in the 1969 Wheatley Report during the Heath Government, persuasion off-site, reinforced by a ‘measure’ which abolished town councils in favour of new district councils, including, or two of hospitality, this was turned into 7 of course, the Royal Burgh of St Andrews. supporters, and one known abstainer. The controversy and debate was between those councillors who However, one obstacle remained to winning formal support and favoured handing ownership of all the Burgh assets – the jewel in the approval within the Town Council, namely the implacable opposition of crown being the Links – to the new District Council, and those who the incumbent Provost Niven and his supporters. So the 7 plotted the favoured finding a means whereby such assets, final move – a vote in favour of a change of but particularly the Links, stayed under the Provost, which was hatched in a clandestine Town Council duly invited Lord control, one way or another, of the citizens of meeting in a private room of the Cross Keys, the town. then owned by councillor David Jamieson, Mackay of Clashfern to initiate The obituary was that of Robert Jones, a firmly in the Rutherford/Jones camp. Hence, and see through the process one-time Minister in the Major Government, who Mr John Gilchrist earned his place in history had died aged 56, and who had gained a certain as the last Provost of the Royal Burgh of which led to the passing by notoriety for saying in a speech to the 1981 St Andrews. After a series of meetings between Parliament of the 1974 Links Act that last Town Council and the local golf clubs, Blackpool Conference that: led by the R&A, with their own historic interests “Margaret Thatcher and Ted Heath both to protect, the Town Council duly invited Lord Mackay of Clashfern have a great vision. The difference is that Margaret Thatcher has a to initiate and see through the process which led to the passing by vision that Britain will one day be great again, and Ted Heath has a Parliament of the 1974 Links Act. vision that one day Ted Heath will be great again.” Despite Citizen readers at the time being treated to what today might Jones, despite this show of support for the Iron Lady, was rewarded by be termed a ‘monumental public punch-up’, peace was made between the being returned to the Back Benches because, it was said, she would not respective protagonists. Provost Niven went on to be a Baillie in that last have a beard appearing on her Front Bench! Burgh Council and a member of the subsequent North East Fife District I recall that the same Robert Jones, whilst still a student at the Council, to complete a distinguished career in local politics. He was University of St Andrews, cut his political teeth as an elected Councillor rewarded with an MBE. on the last St Andrews Town Council as a persuasive voice in the fierce

“This is a tribute to all the Grandmas who have been fearless and learned to use the computer . . . They are the greatest!!!” Thank you, Vida & Hamish Brown, for this anonymous bit of fun

The Computer Swallowed Grandma The computer swallowed grandma. Yes, honestly its true. She pressed ‘control’ and ‘enter’ And disappeared from view. It devoured her completely! The thought just makes me squirm. She must have caught a virus Or been eaten by a worm. I’ve searched through the recycle bin And files of every kind; I’ve even used the Internet, But nothing did I find. In desperation, I asked Jeeves My searches to refine. The reply from him was negative, Not a thing was found ‘online.’ So, if inside your ‘Inbox,’ My Grandma you should see, Please ‘Copy’, ‘Scan’, and ‘Paste’ her And send her back to me!

FEATURES From Sarah Robertson, the new Curator of the Preservation Trust Museum in North Street,

The History of Soap Soap is basically a mixture of a fat and an alkali boiled together until they ‘saponify’ and form a thick compound. This is then drained, shaped into bars, and cut into cakes. The first mention of soap was in the1st century AD, when Pliny wrote of goats’ tallow and beech wood ash being used. The Romans thought that Germanic tribes used a kind of soap to make their hair stiff and red to look more alarming in battle. Signs of soap, and soap-making, were also found at Pompeii. For centuries soap-making, like brewing, was a small or domestic job. Tallow from animals and ‘lye’, made by soaking wood ash in water to extract the potash content, were boiled for up to 24 hours. The thick curd mixture was then poured into wooden frames lined with coarse cloth. When most of the fluid had drained away the bars were turned out, allowed to dry and then cut into cakes. But soap was a luxury. Washing was not a high priority, animals were thin and any fat was needed for food, or to make candles. Only church and luxury candles were made of beeswax. Fats other than tallow were tried – by the 13th century olive oil soap was made in Marseilles and Savona. In the 15th and 16th centuries fats began to be imported into the UK and small soap works were built near ports such as London, Bristol, Leith, and Glasgow. In many areas, like Newcastle, the need for candles was greater, and candle and soap-making grew together. ‘Hard’ tallow was used for candles and the oleic acid by-product with ‘soft’ tallow was used for soap. In 1631, the London Society of Soap Boilers received a Royal charter from Charles I, but it was a small group in constant dispute because of the smells it produced. In the 18th century the ashes from burnt seaweed (kelp) were found to contain more potash than wood ash,

and the additional salt meant that soap could be produced more quickly. For some time kelpburning was profitable along the West coast of Scotland. Rapid growth in population in the 1800s, industrialism, crowded towns and the use of coal increased the need for soap, both commercially and domestically. The textile industry used huge amounts of soap. At home in 1801 only 3lbs (1.3kg) of soap was used by one person per year; in 1861 it was 8lbs (3.66kg). By 1891 however, the figure was 151/2 lbs a year, i.e. 1/4 lb (125g) per week. The Duke of Wellington made a daily bath fashionable in London. For others the weekly bath became a ritual, and by 1860 a washstand, basin, ewer and soap dish were part of a Victorian ‘designer’ bathroom. Methodism, and its ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’, played its part. Liverpool built the first public baths and wash house in 1828 providing hot water facilities for boiling clothes, as well as drying horses, and later ‘centrifugal wringers’! The Bath and Wash house Act of 1846 allowed any vestry or burgh to provide a ‘suitable establishment’ for bathing and washing clothes. These were popular and sociable as well as useful. The well-known play, ‘The Steamie’, gives a vivid picture of a Glasgow communal wash house. Between 1800 and 1860 imports of raw materials grew rapidly. Mutton tallow came from Australia, beef fat from South America, oils (increasingly used) from West Africa, copra from the South Seas and Ceylon, cotton seed and resin (to improve the lather) from the USA.

(Photos: items in The Preservation Trust Museum collections)

Growth continued in the 20th century – soap flakes and soap powder had arrived. In 1899 Leven was selling Lux soap flakes in Britain and America, but the Dutch, Swedes, and Germans preferred old soft soap. In 1901 the new hydrogenation of oils made it easy to make oil-based hard soap and the use of tallow declined. Between 1929 and 1939 soap powders increased to 29% of the market and flakes to 12%. In the 1930s soapless detergents, particularly useful in hard water areas where soap scum was a problem, were developed mainly for industry. Only in the 1920s were they refined for domestic use. This had the added advantage of freeing fats, previously used for soap, to make margarine, which was very scarce and rationed in wartime Britain. Since the 1950s the range of detergents has increased dramatically, with the inevitable decrease in the use of soap. It is now again becoming a luxury item for special use and finer fabrics. Other sources of soap include Saponaria Officianalis, a plant known as Fuller’s Herb and Bouncy Bet. The leaves and roots steeped in water produce a lather. This is still used by conservators to clean old textiles.

FEATURES In 1992, the late David Gourlay researched and wrote this story. It is reproduced affectionately here by kind permission of his son, Neil Gourlay.

The Rescue of Sandy and Tibbie Philp – from the corner house, where North Castle Street meets North Street opposite Castle Tavern. It all started with the longest snow storm ever recorded in St Andrews and was known as the ‘Long Storm’. It began on 12th January and continued to the 24th, there was a lull which lasted till Saturday, 1st February, when it renewed and lasted till Tuesday the 4th. Then, there was a respite till Friday the 7th when the storm returned with intense fury. All St Andrews seemed to be encased in snow and ice, the stagecoaches from Dundee, Cupar, St Andrews to Edinburgh, were all stopped. The northeast gale drove the dense blizzard along the streets and wynds rendering them impassable; all business came to a halt, no-one ventured out unless impelled by necessity, and most of the houses were covered with masses of snow blocking their entrances.

Many, who had run short of coal, were reduced to burning their furniture On Saturday, 8th February, the temperature fell to 20° below freezing. This situation continued with gale-force winds and snow for nearly six weeks, embracing St Andrews in a bitterly cold, icy grasp. It was one of the most prolonged and severe of the century and it was fully three months before the snow melted away, up till then being generally seven feet deep. So deep were the snow drifts that in several parts of the city tunnels had to be dug, not only to reach the out-houses at the back, but to keep up communication with neighbours at the front. Many, who had run short of coal, were reduced to burning their furniture, not only to cook their food, but to create heat in the prolonged storm. This was the situation at the Ladyhead, where North Street traverses North and South Castle Street, and where Sandy and Tibbie Philp, brother and sister, lived in the house opposite the Castle Tavern, at that time a single storey house. The northeast blizzard from St Andrews Bay had drifted the snow to such a height as actually to be above the eaves and on part of the roof, the whole house, back and front, buried in the drift. Sandy and Tibbie lived at each end of the house. Sandy was an old fisherman, a widower, with no family and no-one in his part of the house but himself. Tibbie was a spinster, also alone but for her big black and grey cat. They had a front door each to themselves, but no communication internally. Both Sandy and Tibbie generally awoke at the same time. They peered through the darkness for some signs of daylight, but as no light came through the windows, they thought that they had misjudged the time to get up. They opened their doors inwards, and instead of light and air were met with a solid mass of snow. Trembling with fright they shouted frantically for help. Tibbie, with her poker ‘chappit’ through to Sandy, and Sandy responded with his tongs to let her know he was alive. This was the position and might have remained so had not a number of young fisher lads seen the state that they were in and come to their rescue with spades and shovels, and literally dug them out, extricating the frightened pair from their snow tomb. The young lads had to tunnel six feet before reaching their doors. It is possible, that in their old age they might have frozen to death had it not been for these young fishermen. The year: 1823.

A Christmas story by Ryan Letley, Year Ten at St Leonards School

Last Desires The cold wind swept across the land, buffeting anything in its a ceiling that seemed to go on forever. At the long oak table path, not giving a care to anything that stood before it. The sat their mother and father. Anna and her siblings sat at their freezing wind gave no mercy to a small lady, with her hard life places, already laid with Christmas dinner. etched across her face, in lines that ran from her eyes and After the meal, the table cleared by the servants, the mouth, showing that once she had smiled and laughed. The family moved through to the drawing room. In this room now dull-green eyes, downcast, showed her sadness, but stood the most glorious of all the trees and under it were most of all her loneliness. piles of brightly-covered presents all gleaming in the bright Snow was covering the ground in an icy covering. Anna candlelight. The parents sat on the sofa, while the children ploughed through. The arthritis that had plagued her for years carefully looked through the presents, each choosing one. was making progress slow and painful, the cold making it After each had opened their gifts, their father stood up, worse. Chilled to her inner core Anna stepped into a cramped, crossed over to the tree, and took out a gold-wrapped cold cottage that had seen days of warmth, happiness, and present. He gave this gift to his wife. Carefully she opened joy, now long gone with no chance it revealing a shining wooden box of an encore. The one window, with an oak tree inlaid in gold on The now dull-green eyes, boarded up, no curtain, did little to the lid. Then she opened the lid stop the wind entering. In one corner downcast, showed her sadness, and on crimson velvet sat the was a bed, stuffed with straw and jewel-encrusted globe. She opened but most of all her loneliness grass. Atop this bed lay a thick, it, and in the centre a picture of the rough blanket with holes and rips. A family lay in a thin gold frame. Her threadbare rug covered the stone floor in one corner. It was face lit up and the light of the jewels danced across her face. in this corner that in an unvarnished wooden box lay the thing Shivers rippled through Anna’s body as she remembered most precious to the old lady other than her life. the day that all her happiness was stolen from her and her Anna took off her faded grey cloak, shook the snow off in family. Carefully she replaced the globe in the box, then the the hearth, and then put it back on for warmth. No fire blazed, box in the wooden case it was kept in. Anna laid her head wood was too expensive now for the old woman. She struck down on the hard itchy bed and drifted into the dream where flint on flint lighting a thin yellowing scrap of paper she then she was warm, happy, and someone cared for her. used to light a small stub of wax with a black crooked wick Merry voices sounded through the stone walls. Slowly sticking out. The candle spread weak rays of light through the Anna rose, she felt cold and her legs were stiff. Opening the oppressive darkness. door she let in fresh air and blinding light. Out in the snow, The light guided Anna to the wooden box. An old men looked over the old lady standing in the doorway of the withered hand slid from beneath her cloak and grasped it. run-down cottage. A young man called out to Anna. Moving across to the bed, Anna held with a shaking hand “Merry Christmas!” the spluttering candle, the other clutched the wooden box. “Merry Christmas”, Anna’s cracking voice sounded. The shaking hand carefully placed the only light source in the “ Do you live here?” the young man questioned. room onto a small table. Anna sat down on the bed with the She nodded. She was ashamed of where she lived and wooden box in her lap. Fingers with cracked skin carefully how she lived, but this had come about through no fault of her lifted the latch on the box and raised the lid. Embedded own. in straw sat another wooden box. This one, though, had a “Have we disturbed you and your family?” he asked handsome picture of an oak tree standing tall and strong, apologetically. inlaid in gold. Anna answered, “No, don’t worry you have not disturbed Now the withered hands were shaking more violently than me and there is no-one else to disturb.” before. Anna took in a great breath and opened the lid of the “You are alone?” came the quick surprised response. precious box. Inside sat on a bed of crimson velvet a globe “ Yes, I am.” encrusted with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. Memories “But it’s Christmas! You should be with your family.” swirled in Anna’s head, of the first time her green eyes had “ I have no family. They were killed.” laid their gaze upon the magnificent globe. The old lady’s “Then you must join us!” finger drifted to the butterfly latch. Filled with warmth, she said: “If She lifted the lid of the globe so half that is no problem for you, I would swung open, revealing a picture of a love to.” family. Anna walked back with the group Anna’s memories swam back of men, answering their questions. to the time that the picture was With her, she took the box containing taken. The large palace had been the globe. decorated for Christmas, and in every That night, after eating a room stood handsome Christmas rich Christmas dinner, being trees adorned with brightly coloured persuaded to stay, Anna sat on baubles. Anna ran through the halls her bed holding the globe. Tears of the palace with her brothers and ran down her cheeks, speckling sisters, playing and filled with the the globe, gleaming more brightly. excitement of Christmas. All the girls She went to sleep with gleaming were dressed in golden silk gowns, eyes, happy, and cared for, her final the boys in black shorts and crisp wants granted. She felt as happy white shirts with bow ties. A joyful and content as she did that last bell sounded, calling the residents to Christmas with her family, before the dinner. The children ran down flights Revolution. of stairs, through thickly carpeted She breathed her last breath, her corridors and passed through white heart beat for the last time. Finally, and gold doors as tall as the ceiling, Anastasia was reunited with her then through to the dining room with family in an eternal happiness.