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A few things
Sep. 12th, 2023 10:08 amNew on the website: Jacobite songbook! Do say if you spot anything missing, or if there are any other Jacobite songs you'd especially like included. :D
Also on the website, I've been messing about with CSS and making some aesthetic updates (messing about with CSS is such an absorbingly fun thing to do), so the updates section on the home page is now in a sidebar, and some of the section front pages have a two-column layout to give a somewhat more equal status to FotH and Kidnapped. And I've figured out how to make responsive HTML work, so the site now looks a bit better on mobile (or otherwise very narrow) browsers.
And I've found a few extra things to add to the adaptations of Kidnapped page, and thus have inadvertently made a heartbreaking discovery. Steeleye Span, an English folk-rock group and my favourite band, have recorded several Scottish Jacobite songs, and these songs have been amongst my favourites of theirs for years, even before I got into Jacobite fandoms. Now I know where they came from: in the 1970s Steeleye performed in a stage adaptation of Kidnapped, playing a soundtrack of Jacobite music some of which later ended up on their next album. This was a one-off event and I will never get to watch it, which was tragic enough before I found out that the adaptation included both books. Thus a double tragedy: I can't watch my favourite band perform my favourite book, and I wouldn't have wanted to anyway. (Maddy Prior played the lass at the change-house! There's a finale song called 'Jacobite Rock'!) Woe, alas, cruel fate, etc. I will try to keep liking the songs.
Look at these beautiful illustrations from a 1948 edition of Kidnapped, kindly uploaded and shared by![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
chiropteracupola on Tumblr! Besides getting the height difference approximately right (it's not quite a foot, but Davie is significantly taller), I think this is the only 'official' (i.e. non-fanart) visual representation of Alan I've seen that actually includes his smallpox scars. (Even the 2016 radio adaptation conspicuously cuts that bit from an otherwise almost verbatim use of David's initial description of him.) Actually my first thought was that Alan looks disconcertingly like the gentleman with the thistle-down hair (in the Portia Rosenberg illustrations from the book, not the TV series; it's that nose, I think); I was mildly alarmed by this until, on consideration, I decided that Alan looking just a little bit like an evil fairy is actually very appropriate. Anyway, I love these pictures very much; I must get myself a copy of the relevant edition. —ETA that I have found this edition on the Internet Archive, where more illustrations can be seen, albeit not in quite such good quality.
The Flight of the Heron ebook is getting close to being done! I don't think I've got a proofreader yet, so would anyone like to volunteer? (How this works: I will send you an ebook in format of your choice; you read it keeping a sharp eye out for any typos or formatting errors and report back on what you find.)
Also on the website, I've been messing about with CSS and making some aesthetic updates (messing about with CSS is such an absorbingly fun thing to do), so the updates section on the home page is now in a sidebar, and some of the section front pages have a two-column layout to give a somewhat more equal status to FotH and Kidnapped. And I've figured out how to make responsive HTML work, so the site now looks a bit better on mobile (or otherwise very narrow) browsers.
And I've found a few extra things to add to the adaptations of Kidnapped page, and thus have inadvertently made a heartbreaking discovery. Steeleye Span, an English folk-rock group and my favourite band, have recorded several Scottish Jacobite songs, and these songs have been amongst my favourites of theirs for years, even before I got into Jacobite fandoms. Now I know where they came from: in the 1970s Steeleye performed in a stage adaptation of Kidnapped, playing a soundtrack of Jacobite music some of which later ended up on their next album. This was a one-off event and I will never get to watch it, which was tragic enough before I found out that the adaptation included both books. Thus a double tragedy: I can't watch my favourite band perform my favourite book, and I wouldn't have wanted to anyway. (Maddy Prior played the lass at the change-house! There's a finale song called 'Jacobite Rock'!) Woe, alas, cruel fate, etc. I will try to keep liking the songs.
Look at these beautiful illustrations from a 1948 edition of Kidnapped, kindly uploaded and shared by
The Flight of the Heron ebook is getting close to being done! I don't think I've got a proofreader yet, so would anyone like to volunteer? (How this works: I will send you an ebook in format of your choice; you read it keeping a sharp eye out for any typos or formatting errors and report back on what you find.)
