The Haunts of the Many Writers of Edinburgh

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, boasts two extinct volcanoes, 13 castles, and more festivals than months of the year. Edinburgh (pronounced Edin-bruh; Edin-burr-uh; or even embra, if you're a Leither) has also been home to a large number of well-known writers across its rich past. The authors of everything from Peter Pan to Trainspotting; Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter; have called the city home at some point.

Edinburgh became the first UNESCO city of literature in 2004, and has celebrated an international book festival since 1983, now part of the major August festivals. Throughout the city, there are tours on offer to showcase the locations relevant to famous literature. You can find Harry Potter tours, Trainspotting tours, Rebus tours, and walking around Old Town you can see signs offering literary pub crawls. I am attempting to compress these and more into one article, exploring my hometown through the eyes of its many writers, and showing you the most interesting locations. I have also created a map, should you wish to plan visits to some locations yourself.

Publishing

Edinburgh also has a rich history in publishing. In 1508, the first book published in Scotland was published in Edinburgh's Cowgate. Up until the 1960s, Edinburgh was still the largest publishing centre in Britain outside of London. The first books published in Scotland used the Scots vernacular, rare in a time when books were mostly printed in Latin or Greek. To this day, Scotland has three official languages: Scots, English, and Gaelic.

General Interest

To start with the broad locations for any lover of literature, there’s the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge. Down the Royal Mile there’s the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and the Scottish Poetry Library can be found a bit further down, on Crichton’s Close. All of these frequently host events, a lot of which are cheap or free. If you are specifically interested in more anarchist/feminist literature, then I heartily recommend Lighthouse Bookshop, an independent bookshop on West Nicolson Street, also known for hosting great events.

Many Scottish writers have portraits in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, including an oil painting of a group of poets gathering in Milne's Bar on Rose Street.

Other Authors

Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus crime novels are set within Edinburgh, and heavily feature St Leonard's police station, and the Oxford bar on Young Street. There are frequent references to real locations in Edinburgh in Rankin's books.

Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is another work set within Edinburgh city, with real-life locations mentioned throughout, including the water of Leith. The character of Miss Jean Brodie is based upon a teacher of Spark's atJames Gillespie's School for Girls, who encouraged her to become a writer. The modern James Gillespie's High School is the only public school in Edinburgh with no school uniform.

Aileen Paterson, the author and illustrator of the Morningside Maisie series of children's books, died in March 2018. Lothian Buses use the main character Maisie MacKenzie, a cat, as a mascot for the No. 5 bus, a route that travels through Maisie's home district of Morningside. In the most recent book, Maisie investigated strange happenings in Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens.

Alexander McCall Smith, an ex medical law professor at the University of Edinburgh, has two series of books that have earned him fame: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and 44 Scotland Street. 44 Scotland Street is set in the eponymous building in Edinburgh's New Town. The books have also featured Ian Rankin as a character.

While many of the writers mentioned attended the University of Edinburgh, J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, was the chancellor of the university from 1930 to 1937.

Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, was born in Edinburgh's Castle Street, but moved away as a baby.

In the titular scene of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, the characters are in the derelict Leith Central Station, and a drunken man jokes that they are there for trainspotting. The train station itself was closed to passengers in the 50s, and demolished in the 70s after having become a haven for drug addicts in the area. The terminal building was replaced with a swimming pool, and later a soft play area. The Central Bar and high station walls surrounding the Tesco car park are the remnants of the station's life. The "worst toilet in Scotland" was in a bookmaker's in Muirhouse shopping centre, now Telford Learning Centre. The Volunteer Arms, in which Begbie assaults a man, is now known as the Mousetrap, and has become a lot more up-market. Irvine Welsh himself was born in Leith, and lived in Muirhouse as a child.