Posts Tagged ‘France’
The talented Mr Crichton – and his sad demise
With a dazzling intellect that won him fame across Europe, coupled with brilliant dancing, riding and duelling skills, there was never a man better named than the Admirable Crichton. Life can be uneven in the gifts it distributes to people – as evidence of this, one need look no further than the case of James…
Read MoreRob Mulholland is a natural born sculptor
The relationship between people and the natural world that artist Rob Mulholland reveres so much is the inspiration for his amazing sculptures. It was the work-hard, play-hard lifestyle of his sculpture tutor, Alan Bunkum, that first attracted Rob to the medium. He had previously considered a career in business but, following four years of studying…
Read MoreThe tragic story of a World War I Scots soldier
Two siblings made a fascinating discovery when they opened a chest in their mother’s loft, which they found to be full of an Edinburgh soldier’s writings from World War One. The chest, which had lain unopened for 100 years, contained diaries, letters and poetry from the late Hamish Mann’s time in the trenches. Robert and…
Read MoreThe Scot whose invented land cost 200 lives
On 27 April 1823 an Edinburgh cobbler lay ill and despondent in his small, bamboo hut in a jungle clearing on the Mosquito Coast. He sat up, loaded his horse pistol ‘to the muzzle’, and shot himself in the head. The doctor who had been treating him wrote in his diary that he had ‘literally…
Read MoreWINE TO DINE – MAY 2019 – RHUBARB
Scottish Field wine columnist Peter Ranscombe raids the cellar for five wines to go with rhubarb. FOR me, rhubarb will always conjure up memories of home in Nairnshire. Generations of our family’s cats were buried in the corner of the garden where the rhubarb grew best – although I still don’t want to dwell for…
Read MoreRuth and her very own chocolate factory
For the sweet-toothed among us chocolate is an indulgent pleasure, but for chocolatier Ruth Hinks it is a form of art and a way of life. It’s difficult to think of a fate worse than being deprived of chocolate. But throughout her childhood, this was a reality for UK World Chocolate Master and daughter of…
Read MoreA skiing trip that’s not the one you would expect
At the end of February, in scorching hot conditions, I visited the Jura Mountains for a few days of skiing. This was one of the more interesting and singular skiing trips I’ve undertaken in France, but one that I’d heartily recommend that readers investigate. Here’s why… WHERE IS THE JURA? Every time I told friends…
Read MoreMusic club to welcome Consone String Quartet
Milngavie Music Club’s next concert features an extremely talented, up-and-coming young ensemble that specialises in playing the music of the 18th and 19th centuries as it would have sounded at the time. The prize-winning Consone String Quartet play on period instruments and their concert at Cairns Church, Milngavie, near Glasgow, on 5 April, which focuses on…
Read MoreWith James Bond writer, you only live twice
You know the name… you know the number – James Bond, 007. As the author of the James Bond novel Solo, William Boyd has shared parts of his own life with Ian Fleming’s eternally popular hero. Published in 2013, Solo centres on Bond’s mission to the civil war in the fictional country of Zanzarin, where…
Read MoreWINE TO DINE – APRIL 2019 – SEAFOOD
Scottish Field wine columnist Peter Ranscombe trawls the coast for five wines to go with seafood. SCOTLAND is blessed with world-class seafood – our langoustine graces the plates of top-end restaurants in Spain, our mussels and oysters are the stuff of legend, and our salmon was the first fish and foreign product to attain the…
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