The Toulmin Prize

Announcing a Short Story Prize for the North-East

David Toulmin on the farm

A prize of £500 is to be awarded to the winner of a short story competition set up to commemorate the work of the North-East writer David Toulmin and to encourage creative writing.

The Elphinstone Institute is pleased to announce the launch of a prestigious short story writing competition in memory of David Toulmin, whose given name was John Reid, one of the North-East’s finest masters of the genre. John Reid (1913-1998) was an Aberdeenshire farm labourer who spent most of his life in this occupation, working long hours for very small rewards. In odd moments he jotted down short stories, character studies, and bothy tales. Eventually as ‘David Toulmin’ he had a few articles printed in local newspapers. The first of his ten books was published when he was 59. They consist mostly of short stories and reminiscences, but there is one novel, Blown Seed, which offers a harsh picture of farm life. His writing is powerful, evocative and witty, and he is one of the finest exponents of writing in the Doric.

A short story of up to 4,000 words in length should be submitted by 31 March 2008 to Dr Ian Russell at the address below. Hard copy, size A4, should be sent in addition to an electronic submission in MS Word. The story should be concerned with some aspect of life in North-East Scotland, and may be written in Scots (including Doric) or English, or a mixture of the two. The competition is open to all amateur writers over the age of 16 (NB for the purposes of this competition, a professional writer is considered to be one who has had a solo work published with a recognised UK publisher). The award will be made at the WORD Festival at the University of Aberdeen, 9-11 May, where the winning story will be read out by a well-known writer. The winning story will also be published in the Leopard Magazine.

The services of four experienced judges have been secured - Lindy Cheyne, Paul Dukes, Norman Harper, and Leslie Wheeler.

For further information about the competition and eligibility, as well as submissions, contact
Dr Ian Russell, Director
The Elphinstone Institute,
University of Aberdeen,
MacRobert Building,
King’s College,
Aberdeen AB24 5UA.
Tel: 01224-272996.
email: elphinstone@abdn.ac.uk

Taking Shetland out of the Box

Clickimin Broch, Lerwick

A Conference to Explore Island Cultures and Identity

On 7-10 May 2009, the Elphinstone Institute, the UHI Millennium Institute’s Centre for Nordic Studies, and the Shetland Museum and Archives will hold an international, academic conference in Lerwick, Shetland, based at the Shetland Museum and Archives.

Taking Shetland out of the Box: Island Cultures and Shetland Identity will consider Shetland’s role as a meeting place for cultures and the influence of these meetings on the formation of local identity. The identities of other island communities and culturally-insular peoples will also be considered. It is anticipated that papers will address calendar customs (especially Shetland festivals), folk belief, legend, music, religion, and comparative insular traditions. Other relevant subject areas include insular nationalism, and cultural influences, including Gaelic, Scottish and Nordic.

The call is out for 20-minute papers to address the themes of the conference. Contributors are asked to send a title and abstract to the convenor, Adam Grydehøj of the Elphinstone Institute, at shetlandconference@abdn.ac.uk by the deadline, 1 September 2008. The keynote speakers will be the acclaimed Danish writer Carsten Jensen and the eminent Swedish folklorist Bo Almqvist.

The conference aims to place Shetland and other geographically and/or culturally insular communities in context through an interdisciplinary exploration of the elements of island identity. It will include studies in folklore, anthropology, history, heritage, geography, and island studies. Although the conference’s theme involves Shetland culture, papers are encouraged concerning subjects that are not specific to Shetland but concern island communities (Faroe, Orkney, the Hebrides, Man, Newfoundland, Lofoten, Bornholm, Svalbard, Channel Islands, Gotland, etc.), culturally-insular peoples (the Sami, Scottish Travellers, French Canadians, Inuit, Swedish Finns, etc.), or North Atlantic history and culture. There is particular interest in papers concerning the interactions of insular peoples with other nations and the formation of insular identity and nationalism. It is anticipated that several presentations will focus on communities other than Shetland.

There will be a conference dinner at the Grand Hotel and an excursion led by Lawrence Tulloch, who is a native of Yell and one of Shetland’s best-known storytellers.

From Fiona-Jane Brown

A Quest for Memories in Formartine

Lewis Cameron, Mary Webster, and Jimmy Dick – the first interviewees for the Formartine Project

The Formartine Oral History Project is an initiative of the Formartine Partnership, based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, begun in 2005 with a £35,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The resulting archive, which now stands at 92 interviews, 22 more than the initial projected total, will be available from March at the Turriff, Ellon, and Oldmeldrum libraries. I took over in October 2006 as project co-ordinator and, since then, I have met with and trained volunteer interviewers from many areas in Formartine, including Turriff, Oldmeldrum, Fyvie, Ellon, Barthol Chapel, Collieston, Newburgh, and Belhelvie.

Interviewees have been diverse and fascinating – Mary Webster, a retired nurse now in her nineties, who recalls attending a Traveller woman who gave birth on the floor of a barn, Jill Deldie, a Turriff Academy pupil whose family have a resident ghost, and former players of Formartine United Junior F.C., including Ally Shewan who went on to play for Aberdeen.

Anyone will be able to listen to the interviews. Some clips are already on the project’s website in the form of a podcast. For further information go to http://formartine.pbwiki.com or email formartine_project@yahoo.co.uk

Hector MacAndrew, a Scots Fiddle Legend

Hector MacAndrew, a Scots Fiddle Legend

As a young fiddler growing up in rural Aberdeenshire, there was a handful of Scots fiddlers who really inspired me. Angus Cameron, Willie Hunter, Aly Bain, and Bill Hardie were a few of them but foremost amongst them was the great Hector MacAndrew, born on the Fyvie Castle Estate in 1903. Although I was too late to receive lessons from Hector (he died in 1980), I was lucky enough to get the next best thing: lessons from Hector’s most acclaimed pupil, Douglas Lawrence. Hector’s wife Elsie once said, ‘Douglas was the only one of Hector’s pupils whose playing I couldn’t tell from Hector himself.’ Even before receiving my monthly lessons from Douglas I was well aware that amongst my peers, Hector MacAndrew’s playing was considered to be the benchmark against which all Scots fiddlers should be measured.

Hector came from a family with strong musical traditions; his father Peter, also a fine fiddler, was piper to Lord Leith at Fyvie Castle, where he served as head gardener. His grandfather had been taught the Scots fiddle by James Mackintosh of Dunkeld, the last pupil of Niel Gow. Hector was therefore heir to a fiddle tradition which stretched right back to what is known as the golden age of Scottish fiddle music.

Like many of the great traditional fiddle players, Hector was as at home playing classical music as he was playing Scottish, and he received four years of training from J. H. Alexander of Edinburgh. However, two incidents during the Second World War convinced Hector of the need to keep alive the traditional fiddle music of Scotland: hearing a pipe band practising on an adjacent ship on the way to North Africa and the discovery of a piece of music in packaging outside Tobruk where he was serving with the Royal Artillery. The music was a handwritten copy of the tune ‘The Rolling Spey’, by James Scott Skinner, published in The Harp and Claymore collection.

The highlight of Hector’s career came in 1974 when he hosted Mr Menuhin’s Welcome to Blair Castle, a classic BBC documentary featuring Menuhin as Hector’s pupil in the art of Scots fiddle. Menuhin said of Hector, ‘Surely this man Hector must be one of the most beloved of men, for he spoke with the voice of his people’, and, ‘When I met this man and heard him play, I knew I was in the presence of Scottish history.’

Though Hector recorded several albums and did numerous radio broadcasts (his earliest being in the 1920s for BBC Radio in Aberdeen), they have never been on CD and none are currently available to the general public. I now hope to rectify this situation through the release of an album of Hector MacAndrew playing at his own fireside. In the course of my fellowship I have recorded interviews with a number of North-East fiddlers and one of these players was Florence Lowie (née Burns) of Aberdeen who had a close association with the MacAndrew family and had made reel-to-reel recordings of Hector in 1962. The recordings, which Florence was kind enough to loan to me, are in excellent condition. Moreover, Hector, accompanied by his nephew Sandy Edmonstone on piano is in great form; I’ve often heard it said that Hector never enjoyed public performance very much but preferred playing informally at his own fire side amongst friends. It should be remembered that this recording was never meant for public consumption and small mistakes, false starts and the clock chiming can be heard at times, but I feel that the natural playing more than makes up for it; it has feeling, exuberance, fire, and character, all qualities found in genuine Scots fiddling.

Florence, Sandy, and Hector’s son Pat have all expressed a desire for the recording to be released on CD and I am currently in discussion with a prominent record label who are interested in releasing such a recording in partnership with the Elphinstone Institute. As far as I am concerned it is not before time; the playing of one of our North-East fiddle legends will be heard not just by our local fiddle enthusiasts but by fiddlers the world over.

Paul Anderson

Cullerlie Singing Weekend Nominated for ‘Event of the Year’

Sheila Stewart

The 2007 Traditional Singing Weekend at Cullerlie, held in memory of Tom and Anne Reid, was nominated for the prestigious ‘Event of the Year’ category at the Traditional Music Awards, held at Fort William on 1 November 2007. Competition was very stiff and among the other nominees was the Royal National Mod, which was declared the winner. Twelve of Tom and Anne’s family, together with Ian and Norma Russell, attended the ceremony, which proved to be an excellent evening combining tributes and entertainment. Congratulations are due to Sheila Stewart MBE of the famous Blairgowrie Travelling family, who was inducted into the Awards’ Hall of Fame. Sheila is to be one of this year’s guests at the Cullerlie Weekend, which will be held on the weekend of 25-27 July 2008, where she will also be giving an illustrated talk on her family’s remarkable song tradition.

Other outstanding singers have been booked for this year’s event, including two others who are from Travelling backgrounds – Jess Smith of Crieff, the well-known storyteller and writer, and Viv Legg from Bodmin in Cornwall, who like Sheila is a member of a singing family, the Orchards. Irish singing will be well represented by Rosie Stewart from County

Fermanagh and Oliver Mulligan, who is a member of the London Irish community. Another guest from England is Sam Lee, who works for the English Folk Dance and Song Society promoting traditional singing among young people. Other well-respected singers from Scotland include Jimmy Hutchison from Fife, whose roots are in Gaelic tradition but who sings in Scots, Bill Gray from Peterhead, the 2007 ‘Champion of Champions’ bothy ballad singer at Elgin, Danny Couper, whose support of traditional music in the North-East has been unstinting for over forty years, and Shona Donaldson, a finalist in Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year, 2003 and 2004, and BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards in 2006.

There will also be the opportunity to take part in workshops, several of which are devoted to traditional crafts, including knitting ‘Peterhead Bonnets’, basket making with Alex Sutherland, ‘drystane dyking’ with Dave Bullock, and farmhouse cooking with Shirley Foulkes. There will also be two workshops devoted to singing traditions – ‘In the Fermanagh Tradition’, with Rosie Stewart, and ‘Sharing the Road’ with Jess Smith and Viv Legg.

Places can be booked by downloading a form from this site or by phoning 01224 645486.