Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS)

Last night I went to hear John Cairney talking about Robert Louis Stevenson at the Central Library here in Edinburgh. John Cairney is one of Scotland's finest actors, best known for his Robert Burns shows on TV and stage in Scotland and all round the world. I still remember him doing his Rabbie on TV, in fact it's one of my earliest TV memories, that and watching westerns on my late auntie's TV on a Saturday night, much to my father's annoyance at the time.

John Cairney is now a very young eighty three years, looking more like sixty three, and still able to hold his audience mesmerised and enthralled by his performance. There were a few moments when you could hear the silence, he said himself at the end that "we had two minutes of heaven tonight". I could have listened to him all night.

He described his performance as a threnody for RLS, which I suppose sums it up nicely. RLS was  Scotland's finest wordsmith, as good as, if not better than Burns even, and one of our greatest contributions to world culture, one of many of course, too long to list here. But I'm sure you could produce your own very long list. He was a writer, poet, novelist, dramatist, travel writer, children's writer and essayist. He travelled the world in search of good health and finally settled in Samoa, where he was known as "Tusitala" or "Teller of Tales". He died there 1894.

The first poem I ever learnt by heart was his poem "The Lamplighter" and when I close my eyes and think about it now I can still feel the same thrill as I felt as a wee boy, reading it and wondering who Leerie was and if I would ever get to meet him. Well I met a few Leeries in my time, but I'm still waiting to meet the real one. Maybe someday he'll be there lighting the lamps in Morningside.

RLS loved The Pentlands and owned a house in Swanston, a  village lying in the foothills, where he spent his summers until eventually he left Scotland forever. I have a view of those Pentland Hills  from my apartment here in Edinburgh, and often think of him wondering about up there and writing his stories about Balfour and the rest and maybe he even wrote The Lamplighter there, although more probably at 17 Heriot Row, "with a lamp before the door".

So a very enjoyable evening was had by all, and we chatted with John afterwards and he signed a copy of his new book about RLS for us all. John now lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and his book is partly based on a PhD on RLS he completed at Victoria University, Wellington.

Tonight for a complete change I'm going to see Silver Linings Playbook, I'm told it's hugely funny. So lets see. De Niro is always worth seeing. But lets finish with a wee quote from RLS on Edinburgh:

"Beautiful as she is, she is not so much beautiful as interesting. She is pre-eminently Gothic, and all the more since she has set herself off with some Greek airs, and erected classic temples on her crags. In a word and above all, she is a curiosity."