Blog
This is a selection of web-log articles and talks. For the full list of past talks and papers please visit the [Events] page.
Who wrote those famous lines?
On Thursday, 3rd April 2025 we had a talk by Sara Sheridan on "Writing Historic Novels in the Age of Scott"
28th November 2024
Thursday 31st October 2024
The talk looks at how both Walter Scott and Muriel Spark engage with the ideas of the Borders and of Edinburgh. In the cases of both, these literary topographies emerge as vivid literary landscape, but are also much more uncertain than they might at first appear reflecting the wider complexity of Scotland, the world and the human condition generally.
Saturday 10th August 2024
Thursday 6th June 2024
Thursday 11th April 2024
Thursday 14th March 2024
16th November 2023
On Thursday, 12th October we had a joint lecture with the English Literature Dept of Edinburgh University.
Dr Valentina Bold was introduced by Dr. Lucy Wood.
Thursday 14th September 2023
On Saturday 12th August we had a Colloquium on Quentin Durward with J. H. Alexander and Dr Lesley Graham. They were introduced by our Chairperson, Dr. Lucy Wood.
Thursday 1st June 2023
On Thursday 9th March 2023 we had a talk by Prof. Gillian Black and Sir Crispin Agnew on The Enigma of Sir Walter Scott’s “moor” supporter—a symbol of slavery?.
The Greek Blockhead: Sir Walter Scott, Greek, Greece and the Greeks by Iain G. Brown.
Thursday 10th November 2022
On Thursday 13th October 2022 we had a talk by Susan Oliver on "Walter Scott and the Greening of Scotland"
Joint Dinner with The New Club to Celebrate George IV’s Visit.
Wednesday 17th August 2022
A historically informed four-course dinner & performances of dance and music from Les Danses Antiques.
Dress: Black tie, Lowland or Highland Dress
Saturday 13th August 2022
On Thursday 2nd June 2022 we had a talk by Ian Chisholm on Scott as a Historian. He was introduced by our Chairperson, Dr. Lucy Wood.
Thursday 7th April 2022
Prof. Aonghus Mackechnie -- Building a New Past, Bequeathing a Future: Walter Scott and the Baronial.
On Thursday 14th October 2021 we had a joint-lecture with the Edinburgh University English Department given by Dr David Stewart. He was introduced by our chairman Prof. Iain Torrance.
Thursday 23rd September 2021
A Colloquium on "Kenilworth" a discussion with J.H. Alexander and Lee A. Simpson
Frolics in the Face of Europe: Sir Walter Scott, Continental Travel and the Tradition of the Grand Tour by Dr. Iain G. Brown.
On Thursday 6th May 2021 we were treated to a dinner from the multi award-winning restaurant Wedgwood, whose
Head Chef, Paul Wedgwood, had devised a Scott-themed three-course menu just for us! Paul and his team prepared the meals and delivered them directly to us at our homes (even personally by the Chef himself for those of us living in Edinburgh).
On 8th April 2021 The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club virtually hosted a talk by Ray Perman.
Scott’s Relationship with Traditional Song a musical performance and talk by Anne McClary
Friday 22nd November 2002
On 12th November 2020, we hosted our first ever live virtual talk, given by Lillian Elliott. We were delighted that Lillian could join us for this important milestone in the Club's 126-year history, and especially pleased that she was able to provide us with such an accessible, nuanced look into her research into Scott's celebrity and its reverberations in the material imagination in the nineteenth century.
On Thursday 15th October 2021 we had a talk by Dr. Daniel Cook
On 10th September 2020 we hosted an online talk by Dr Lucy Wood. She gave us a video tour of sites in the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh connected with Scott.
On 15th August 2020 we hosted an online talk by Kirsty Archer-Thompson, Collections and Interpretation Manager, The Abbotsford Trust. She gave us an exclusive guide to the artefacts held at Abbotsford relating to Ivanhoe
David Purdie discussing the rationale and practice of his abridged edition of Ivanhoe.
[images supplied by David Purdie - used for non-commercial purposes]
Prof. David Purdie is a Hon. Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Humanities, University of Edinburgh.
A former Chairman of the ESWSC, he is the editor of editions of Scott’s Ivanhoe and The Heart of Midlothian, the original text adapted for the modern reader.
Thursday 5th March 2020
Kathy Crawford Hay - Scotland’s Hidden Treasure: The remarkable story of the oldest Royal Regalia in Britain.
On Thursday 17th October 2019 we had a talk on Adam Smith, Henry Dundas, and the Legal Education of Walter Scott: The Background to the Novels? by Professor John W. Cairns.
He was introduced by our chairman Prof. Iain Torrance
This was a joint lecture with the Edinburgh University English Department and held in the Advocates' Library.
Donald Smith - Scott: Our Convivial Host
Sunday 3rd August 2014
Thursday 20th June 2019
Dairmid Gunn - Sir Walter Scott's Impressions of Russia
On Thursday 4th April 2019 we had a talk by Gillian Hughes. She was introduced by our Chairman, Prof Peter Garside.
Deirdre Shepherd's talk on "The Life of Marguerite Charlotte Charpentier: Disorderly Outsider?" from 2019.
by Agnes Cunningham
with an Introduction by Bridget Falconer-Salkeld
Thursday 29th November 2018
Thursday 4th October 2018
Dr. Stuart Allan - David Stewart of Garth, Scott’s “Highlander of the Old Stamp”
On Saturday 18th August 2018 we had a talk by Prof. David Purdie. He was introduced by our Chairman, Prof. Peter Garside.
