A City in Love
A City in Love
Built on books, Edinburgh spells paper, publishing. Esparto grass bales came under sail from the silty banks of the Nile; and the Esk turned its ten mills, mulched and rolled fibre and filament to finest vellum.
Editors still work into the night, sift through impatient manuscripts; type-setters tease out the form proof-checkers nit-pick, then printing, folding, binding. All those words to get right.
A capital city, Heart of Midlothian, where you mingle with Scott and Fergusson, admire Muriel Spark, rub shoulders with Harry Potter, shadow Rebus, Jekyll's alter ego. Yes, a city in love with literature.
Christine De Luca, Saltire Society, 2017