Ken and Sheena’s Excellent Adventure in the Scottish Highlands
- In Perth, we had dinner at the Hightower Hotel with
my long-lost, DNA-found cousin Jim McGugan. - In Sutherland, we visited Dunrobin Castle, the most
politically incorrect edifice in Britain. - In Helmsdale, by about an hour, we missed coincidentally
encountering our Orcadian pal, historian Tom Muir . . . and so failed to
meet his new wife! - We almost got killed when, on a narrow two-lane
road, with a rock wall on our side, the driver of an oncoming camper-van decided
to pass a group of cyclists and swung out into our lane. I managed to slow
just enough . . . . - At a bank machine in Stornoway, while withdrawing funds, we encountered Toronto writer Heather Birrell, who is
sojourning on the Isle of Lewis. - While staying at Fort William, we made our way to the top of a mountain in the Nevis Range. All right, all right: we rode a gondola.
- At Waterstone’s Books in Oban, in a section called
Recommended Reading, we came upon five copies of Fatal Passage. This was after we found two copies at a
bookstore in Portree. Hats off to Bantam Books for keeping the work alive
after fifteen years — and to my agent, Beverley Slopen, for bringing that team aboard.
- In Helensburgh, we visited a National Trust property,
Carisbrooke House, and got inside an addition created by William Fraser,
Sheena’s architect grandfather. - Along the way, somehow, we amassed an unconscionable
pile of obscure books. - As to how it all fits together, well, that will
emerge in due course.
Heather Birrell taught me short fiction at U of T years ago. And I'm super glad you didn't die.
Glad you survived all of that Ken…plus all that scotch.
Denis
Amazing that we just missed you on this trip – although you traveled far wider and longer than we did!