News of the Dead

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Storytelling is a pervading theme of the book, whether that’s individuals’ own personal histories – the stories they tell about themselves – or how they are remembered by others. Made by award winning filmmaker Anthony Baxter, the short documentary/drama follows Robertson as he explores the writing of his new novel News of the Dead, which is set in the fictional Glen Conach.

News of the Dead by James Robertson - Available now - BBC News of the Dead by James Robertson - Available now - BBC

The whole thing works rather better than that description would suggest, and my respect for Robertson's ability as a storyteller is still growing. The horizon lowers, possibilities diminish, mind and body protest more when made to work, or simply refuse to work at all.The message I took from the book, is that history is made by everyone, not just through official records, but also spoken stories and folklore, and personal diaries and memories. Published by Penguin this month, the book features characters set hundreds of years apart, but all linked by the same place: an ancient hermit, a nineteenth-century charlatan and, in the present day, the Glen’s eldest resident whose young schoolboy friend thinks he’s seen a ghost. They were, however, separate stories but with the link that they all happened in the same glen, and the remoteness of the glen had an influence on each story. Gibb’s dubious motives colour our reading of his translation, which already contains the sort of fantastical miracles you’d expect of any hagiography, such as the resurrection of dead animals and the curing of a young woman’s blindness.

News of the Dead by James Robertson - Fantastic Fiction News of the Dead by James Robertson - Fantastic Fiction

And could it not just as easily be Catholic, English (like the 1574 troops pulling the cannon to lay siege to the Castle) French (like the Queen) or (a bit of a push, this) British? Ajay Close is not unsympathetic to Herbert’s condition, but it is Catherine’s heroic determination to make her own future that drives the narrative forward. Catholicism hasn’t, however, been completely banished: people like Will’s mother still attend clandestine masses. After a while he becomes fond of the Baron and his family – his wife Margaret, his daughter Jessie – and deceives them to extend his stay.He is one of Scotland’s most respected novelists, and it’s been fascinating to explore the five year creative process of this extraordinary and compelling book, which has been partly shaped by the pandemic we’ve all been living through. It begins in the present day with Maja, one of the oldest residents of the equally fictitious Glen Conach, being visited by a local boy who claims to have seen a ghost.