Discover Issue 53, Winter 2025

Excerpt from 'Giving a voice to those who deserve more recognition', page 3:

Celebrating our 100th birthday over the past year has been a whirlwind of events, exhibitions and campaigns to celebrate libraries throughout the country. Now our centenary year is complete, we feel like we’re just getting started. As this magazine lands in mailboxes, museums and libraries around the country, we are readying one of our most treasured collections items for a special loan to Perth Museum – Mary, Queen of Scots’ last letter. We have plenty about Mary in this issue, including Denise Mina’s take on the infamous monarch in our cover story about the crime author on pages 14 to 17. For details of all you can see and do in Perth during our time there – including seeing manuscripts in the hand of Liz Lochhead and Robert Burns at AK Bell Library – go to page 29.

Our Scots Scriever, Taylor Dyson, is passionateabout a lot of things, not least her practice as a dramaturge and theatre practitioner. But she is most passionate about one thing: unearthing working-class women’s voices. As Dyson explains on pages 26 and 27, the travails of the working-class writer didn’t end with the arrival of the 21st century. During her residency with us, Dyson has explored our archives for evidence of these voices in previous centuries, some of whom somehow found the time to create poetic works in Scots under the most challenging conditions. Dyson’s ode to one such writer, Ellen, will break your heart.

On the other side of the economic fence, so to speak, we focus on another woman who – through the benefit of her social standing and wealth – had the time to observe the norms and behaviours of the upper classes and write novels of tremendous satire and wit. Susan Ferrier – a 19th-century novelist whose work currently sits alongside that of Jane Austen in our ‘Treasures’ exhibition – also took a leading role in Edinburgh’s salons and society. Her great-great-niece has just completed her PhD on Ferrier and on pages 11 to 13 you’ll read a heartfelt tribute to an author whose talent and influence deserves greater recognition.

Family and connections remain a key strand of this edition. On pages 23 to 25, Walter Scott – great- great-great-nephew of 19th-century Presbyterian missionary Mary Scott – partnered with Anira P. Lepcha of Sikkim University in North East India to bring his aunt’s legacy to life. Scott is much celebrated in that part of the world for encouraging girls into education.

Closer to home, Mark Baillie writes about using the collections to research his family history in Scotland only to end up writing a mystery novel based on the removals of Gypsy-Traveller children from their families in the 1980s. Find out more on page 19.

Mark’s story is part of the Love Libraries series in this edition. On page 21, Alison Nolan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Library and Information Council, tells us why we must never stop advocating for libraries and their existence. We also feature a profile on Perthshire’s mobile library service (page 20). Omar Dafalla has been running this service for decades and reckons he has the best job in the country. We think he might be right.

All of our activity throughout Scotland over the past year and coming up this year would not have been possible without donations to our Centenary Appeal. If you made a donation, thank you.

On a personal note, looking back on our Centenary work has been particularly poignant, as I’m retiring from the Library after almost 40 years. It’s been a privilege to work with such extraordinary collections and wonderful colleagues over this time. The Library goes from strength to strength and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Meanwhile, please enjoy this issue of ‘Discover’ magazine.

Jackie Cromarty
Director of Engagement