Latest news with #AScotsQuair
The National
26-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Historic Scottish church featured in novel could be saved by locals
The Church of Scotland is selling Arbuthnott Church in Kincardineshire in an effort to plug a £5.9 million deficit. The church was the inspiration for the setting of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song and it is also where the author is buried. Lewis Grassic Gibbon The Church of Scotland said it recognised that the building – the oldest section of which dates back to the late 1200s – as "important and valuable", but that it needed a "significant reduction" in the number of properties it owns. The Arbuthnott Community Development Group is looking to purchase the building and preserve its cultural legacy, while it could also be used as a local hub for events such as concerts. Charles Roberts-McIntosh, chairman of the group, told the BBC that he is determined the building and Gibbon's legacy are protected. READ MORE: Hillwalker dies while climbing mountain in King's Balmoral Estate He said: "We will look to raise money or apply for funds. "People are still interested in this history and rural life - and tourists love Scottish culture. "The value culturally is incalculable. Sunset Song endures because it is a wonderful piece of literature." Alan Riach, National contributor and professor of Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow, said he was "appalled" at the news of the church's closure. He told the BBC: "This is one of the great places of pilgrimage in literary Scotland. "It's not only fixed forever in our cultural history as an essential co-ordinate point in the biography of one of our greatest writers, but it's also a key reference point in his greatest novel." Sunset Song was written in 1932 by Grassic Gibbon, the pen name of James Leslie Mitchell, and is the first novel in the trilogy A Scots Quair. It follows the story of a young woman growing up before and during the First World War and draws on the themes of class, war, religion and female emancipation. READ MORE: The life and death of Scottish author Lewis Grassic Gibbon The kirk, named Kinraddie Church in the novel, is a significant location in the story. Grassic Gibbon is buried in the graveyard, and the inscription on his headstone reads: "for I will give you the morning star'. There is also a sculpture inside the church of the great knight of yesteryear, which features at the start of Sunset Song. A statement from the Church of Scotland said: "We believe a significant reduction in the number of buildings we own is necessary in order to deliver sustainable and realistic new expressions of ministry and church and to ensure all of our buildings are suitable for the needs of mission in the 21st century. "As part of the process, the local presbytery has taken the decision to release Arbuthnott Church. "There are no set dates as yet, but under the current mission plan, Arbuthnott Church would be released by the end of 2025."
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Our church inspired Sunset Song - we want to save it
A historic church that played a central role in one of Scotland's most-loved novels is being put up for sale to plug a gap in Church of Scotland's finances and locals are determined to save it. Arbuthnott Church, nestled in the beautiful countryside of Kincardineshire, was the inspiration for the setting of Sunset Song and the remains of its author, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, are buried in its graveyard. The Church of Scotland recognises the building - the oldest section of which dates back to the late 1200s - as "important and valuable", but says it needs a "significant reduction" in the properties it owns. Charles Roberts-McIntosh, chairman of the Arbuthnott Community Development Group, said he is determined that the building and Grassic Gibbon's cultural legacy are preserved. "We will look to raise money or apply for funds," Mr Roberts-McIntosh said. "People are still interested in this history and rural life - and tourists love Scottish culture. "The value culturally is incalculable. Sunset Song endures because it is a wonderful piece of literature." Sunset Song was written in 1932 by Grassic Gibbon, the pen name of James Leslie Mitchell. It was the first book in the trilogy - A Scots Quair - telling the story of Chris Guthrie, a young woman who lives and works on her family farm in the Mearns, the farming areas south of Aberdeen. The novel is set on the fictional estate of Kinraddie which Grassic Gibbon based on Arbuthnott, where he lived as a child and where his ashes were buried after his death at the age of 33 in 1935. The story told by the trilogy begins just before World War One and follows Chris from the countryside of her childhood to a big city, touching on class, war, religion and female emancipation. In 1971, a six-episode television adaptation of the novel was the first colour drama made by BBC Scotland and was greeted with huge acclaim. It was credited with reigniting interest in Grassic Gibbon, and Sunset Song was put on the Higher English syllabus. In 2016, it was voted Scotland's favourite book in a BBC poll, ahead of the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and Lanark by Alasdair Gray. In an introduction to the novel, published in 2020, the then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote of her love for the book, which she said is her favourite novel. Alan Riach, professor of Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow, told the BBC he was "appalled" at news of the imminent closure of Arbuthnott Church. "This is one of the great places of pilgrimage in literary Scotland," he said. "It's not only fixed forever in our cultural history as an essential co-ordinate point in the biography of one of our greatest writers, but it's also a key reference point in his greatest novel." Scott Lyall, an associate professor of Modern and Scottish Literature at Edinburgh Napier University, described the church as a site of "genuine importance to Scotland's literary heritage". Prof Lyall said: "The minister at the end of Sunset Song, in tribute to the local fallen war dead of World War One, indicates that we must remember the past and the dead to better understand our present condition and build a better future. "It would be a sad irony then if the church, with its own long history, were to be neglected. "It would be wonderful to see it as a cultural heritage site with Gibbon's life and reputation at its centre." The Church of Scotland said it expected the main church building would go up for sale later this year. Its congregation for Sunday services is small, in what is a quiet rural area of just a few hundred people. The kirk hopes nearby Bervie Church will serve as the main focus of local worship. The Church of Scotland said that, in recent years, it had identified a need for "radical change against a backdrop of falling minister numbers, a decline in membership and a reduction in income". A statement said: "We believe a significant reduction in the number of buildings we own is necessary in order to deliver sustainable and realistic new expressions of ministry and church and to ensure all of our buildings are suitable for the needs of mission in the 21st century. "As part of the process, the local presbytery has taken the decision to release Arbuthnott Church." The statement added: "There are no set dates as yet, but under the current mission plan, Arbuthnott Church would be released by the end of 2025." Mr Roberts-McIntosh said the local community was determined to save a building that was so intrinsic to one of Scotland's most-loved novels. As well as honouring the author, it is thought the building could also become a local hub for events such as concerts, aided by the acoustics of the church building. Mr Roberts-McIntosh said the the building itself was "fundamentally sound". "It just needs some tender loving care," he said. Sunset Song: Enduring appeal of a Scottish classic Sunset Song 'is Scotland's favourite book' Sunset Song set for December release
The Herald Scotland
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
New authorised biography of Lewis Grassic Gibbon
The popular acclaim of James Leslie Mitchell has risen exponentially in the 21st century, with his critical standing in European literature now assured. This is the first full critical biography, authorised by his family, of the author, who found enduring fame by his pen-name of Lewis Grassic Gibbon, universally heralded for the plangent autofictional novel Sunset Song and for the epic trilogy of modern Scotland, A Scots Quair. A native of Speyside, William Malcolm has devoted his career as teacher and academic to the promotion of Scottish literature. His lifelong passion for Mitchell/Gibbon has produced three critical studies, from publication of his Ph.D. study in 1984, as well as scholarly editions of Lewis Grassic Gibbon: The Reader and of Gibbon's masterpiece, Sunset Song, for Penguin Classics. READ MORE: What Scottish literary great should be next in culture war slaughter? 'This has all the hallmarks of a classic' - Nine new books to read next Pardon my French: could this be a record in Scottish literature? Appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies in 2017, Dr Malcolm's privileged position as literary adviser to the Grassic Gibbon Centre and joint administrator of the Mitchell Literary Estate has granted him unique insight to Mitchell's life and work. The culmination of forty years of dedicated research, this volume represents the realisation of the author's long-standing pledge to the Mitchell family to provide an intimate and rounded portrait of the man behind the legacy. Drawing on a wealth of fresh evidence from public and private sources, History of a Revoluter is "the riveting narrative of the social, physical and emotional hardships that Leslie Mitchell had to overcome in order to achieve literary success, abruptly cut short by his early death". Set against the turbulence of the early decades of the 20th century, Mitchell's story traces the complex conditions that forged a uniquely passionate personality whose writings have won unparalleled popular resonance, and whose keen humanitarian appeal has never been so compelling. Scottish novelist James Robertson said: 'This account of the life and work of one of Scotland's greatest modern writers must be the benchmark against which all future studies of James Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon are measured. "Wide-ranging yet packed with detail, it leaves no stone unturned in exploring the origins of Mitchell's genius and charting how in his short life he was able to write so much, so well, on so many different subjects and, in his Scots Quair trilogy, create an enduring and much-loved masterpiece.'
BBC News
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Sunset Song: The enduring appeal of a Scottish classic
It was the programme which brought to TV audiences one of the great 20th Century novels and revolutionised how drama was made in 54 years later, BBC Scotland's ground-breaking 1971 production of Sunset Song is being shown again in a re-mastered version to mark the 90th anniversary of author Lewis Grassic Gibbon's serial, acclaimed as one of the finest dramas made by the BBC, will be followed by sequels Cloud Howe and Grey Granite, which were made in the early is a fresh chance to see why both the novel and the dramas endure. Sunset Song was written in 1932, the first of three books telling the story of Chris Guthrie, a young woman who lives and works on her family farm in the Mearns, the farming areas south of just before World War One, the novel and its sequels follow Chris from the countryside of her childhood to a big city, touching on class, war, religion and female emancipation. Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pen name of James Leslie Mitchell, who had been raised in the Mearns. He was a journalist in Aberdeen, Glasgow and London and a passionate published A Scots Quair, as the trilogy became known, between 1932-1934, the final volume appearing just a year before his untimely death aged 33. The journalist and author James Naughtie was brought up in nearby Banffshire and knows well the area in which Sunset Song is remembers the effect reading it had on him as a teenager in the late 1960s."I remember being very gripped by it emotionally. I think that it's a book that young people can become involved in and respond to very viscerally. It became something that I realised was a book I would never forget," he says. In March 1971, the six-episode-long television adaptation hit the screens. It was the first colour drama made by BBC Scotland and was greeted with huge by Bill Craig and directed by Moira Armstrong, it featured some of Scotland's greatest acting talent, including Andrew Keir, Roddy McMillan and Paul Young. Chris was played by Vivien Heilbron, just 26 at the time. More than 50 years later, she is still happy to talk about the role."I'm very, very proud of all three programmes. I'm proud to be associated with it and it is by far the most interesting character I've every played on television," she says."I've done some nice things and had very good parts, but that was something kind of iconic, I think."James Naughtie has voiced the trails for the programme's latest broadcast and believes the series more than lived up to the book."The TV adaptation was, I think, quite an enlightened thing because the book wasn't well enough known. I mean, it was known fairly well but it hadn't become a kind of touchstone for modern Scottish writing in the way that it has since," he Song has been remastered. The original film was digitised, 50 years of dirt and dust removed and the picture regraded to resemble as much as possible its original says: "I'm absolutely thrilled. A lot of people really loved it and seem to want to see it again and I am hoping that a lot of people will watch it this time who have never seen it before."Sunset Song is always the favourite one but I think that Cloud Howe and Grey Granite are also terrific novels and Bill Craig made such a beautiful job of all three adaptations."I'm sure if Lewis Grassic Gibbon could see them he would have approved." The TV drama was credited with reigniting interest in Grassic Gibbon, and Sunset Song was put on the Higher English syllabus. In 2016, it was voted Scotland's favourite book in a BBC an introduction to the novel published in 2020, the then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wrote of her love for the book, which she said is her favourite novel."Sunset Song is one of the first books that had me utterly captivated by the lyricism of language and the power of place. I discovered the novel's ability to educate as well as entertain," she wrote. "While I could fantasise about being George from the Famous Five in a life wildly different to my own, Chris Guthrie spoke to, and helped me make sense of, the girl I was," she added. The passage of time and the changes that brings are key themes in A Scots Quair and the books are now more than 90 years old. Last year it was revealed Sunset Song was being removed as a set text for Higher English after a consultation with "learners and practitioners" across the country.A majority of both groups called for the novel to be dropped from the list in favour of more modern and diverse texts. The Scottish Qualifications Authority said it was only being removed from the critical reading paper and could still be taught. For Vivien Heilbron, there is no more radical, modern, relevant text."I don't think you can think of anything more modern than some of the statements that Lewis Grassic Gibbon makes about mankind. I mean, human nature doesn't change a great deal," she says."This is a book that should not be forgotten."Sunset Song will be shown on BBC Four on Wednesday 5 February at 22:10 and will be available on the iPlayer soon afterwards.
