With Edinburgh: The Autobiography, Alan Taylor does for the nation’s capital what he has previously done for Glasgow and gives the city the documented history it deserves; a timely undertaking in this its 900th anniversary. In the introduction Taylor quotes Hugh MacDiarmid, who described the city as ‘a mad god’s dream’, which is a wonderful evocation not only of the place, but the people who have shaped it. Telling the story acrossmany of those years, Taylor proves to be the most welcoming of editors, his introductions to every chapter lending them a warm and personal touch while putting what follows into a wider context.
What quickly becomes clear is that the very construct of the city would shape its character, with the high and low caste living cheek by jowl in what we now think of as the labyrinthine Old Town. This would result in a city with an antisyzygy all of its own, a place intrinsically divided; one where extremes meet.
Simultaneously leafy, wealthy, and superior, yet often, when the haar rolls in, dark, twisted, and dangerous – where else could have inspired Stevenson to write The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
Part of the joy is reading from the more unexpected names, which include Charles Dickens, Dorothy Wordsworth, Kenneth Tynan, and one Hunter S. Thompson. Elsewhere, contributors such as Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, through to Muriel Spark and Ian Rankin, confirm the almost unmatched literary legacy which continues to this very day.
As the years move towards the present you get the feeling that Taylor becomes almost spoilt for choice as to who and what to include, but still manages to cover the significant bases: art, politics, sport, culture…drink. In this city, where there are poets there are also pubs.
So if you think you know Edinburgh, then think again. Through judicious use of the words of others Alan Taylor informs, educates, and most definitely entertains as he takes you on a journey through place and time.
Edinburgh: The Autobiography is published by Birlinn Books. Available here.
