Library staff members Lesley Conway and Pia Butcher run a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 98.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next Wednesday for a great show.
On Wednesday's show
What are judges of Story Writing Competitions looking for? If you are contemplating entering some of your writing for the Eastern Regional Libraries National Story Writing Competition, you would find it helpful to read the Prefaces that each of the previous years' judges have written. There is a different judge each year, so they all have individual takes on what they are looking for, but interestingly they also have many comments in common, such as economy of language, finding a new way to say something which has been written about many times before, and going for simplicity rather than complexity. You can find the compilations of winning and commended short stories on shelf in all our branch libraries.
Re-visiting a theme of our program 3 weeks ago, I have some more fascinating titles about Scotland. Highland Wilderness by Colin Prior is a thick book full of magnificent photos of the severe and beautiful landscape of northern Scotland. Most are amazing panoramas of mountains, lochs and sea coast, but there are also some lovely intimate shots of waterfalls, rivers and small valleys. An in depth introduction discusses the competing demands of environmental protection and agricultural use that has been a challenge for centuries.
In contrast to the isolation and wildness of the Highlands, we have a book which describes Scotland in the 1700's as "Europe's most literate society, producing an idea of modernity that has shaped much of civilisation as we know it". The Scottish Enlightenment : the Scots invention of the modern world by Arthur Herman, who is very clear that he is not a Scot or descended from Scots, is not a chauvanistic exercise. He is writing about the legacy of remarkable people like David Hume, James Watt and Robert Adam, and makes a compelling case for the significance of Scots in the development and growth of British influence over two centuries.
Going back a little further in Scottish history, The sickly Stuarts : the medical downfall of a dynasty by Frederick Holmes goes into the many health problems of different generations of the royal Stuarts which led to Queen Anne (even after 17 pregnancies, with no heir living to adulthood) being the last of her line in 1714. The author argues that this was a major factor in the growth in importance of the British Parliament, and he makes a very interesting read out of the complex politics of the times.
Music today was from Loreena McKennitt's CD An ancient muse
Cheers, Maryanne
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