Old and new

    An old book, a new publisher.

    Here is a splendid edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, the launch title from Manderley Press. With an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith and artwork by Iain McIntosh (familiar to so many for his illustrations for AMS's 44, Scotland Street series), "this gloriously vivid and entertaining portrait of Edinburgh continues to beguile the modern reader 150 years after it was first written.

    "... Stevenson draws on his skills as a master storyteller, his memories of growing up in Edinburgh and his interest in social history, legend and myth. A trusty, witty and irreverent tour guide, he leads the reader on an unforgettable journey through the city, bringing to life its most engaging characters and landmarks."

    And to quote the introduction, "Every city is, for its inhabitants, a living map... We read a city as we walk through it. We read its past; we converse with its dramatis personae; we become familiar with its stones, its angles, the glimpses it affords us of streets that lead off somewhere we might one day explore. That is the tenor of this book. It is a ramble. It is at times a prose poem. It is a stream of conscious memoir about living in a town so gorgeously romantic it could be an opera set; it is a litany of whispers and echoes; it is a love song to a city. It is all of these."

Comments

[Nan]

I think of all the cities in the world, Edinburgh is one I could be happy in. All those descriptions in AMS books wooed me! And there are photos of it I've seen on instagram that are just perfect. I love that new presses still exist, and this book looks wonderful.