OUT SOON:
A special limited edition of Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy is to be published by the Folio Society – illustrated by award-winning Scottish artist June Carey. Celebrating 250 years since the famous author’s birth, the sumptuous goatskin leather-bound edition contains 10 specially commissioned works by the Stirling-based artist, as well as an introduction by Outlander author Diana Gabaldon. “Let the sound of the words lead you into the book, and into an adventure that’s simultaneously vividly historical and romantically timeless,” writes Gabaldon in her foreword to a classic tale the publishers describe as “one of the finest historical romances – a genre which Scott, the ‘wizard of the north’ is widely credited with inventing”.
June Carey “combines the real with the imagined, incorporating the device of the Clan MacGregor into her binding design,” says the publisher, adding: “The meticulous research undertaken in her approach to this exciting new commission is evident in the 10 intriguing and intelligent full-colour illustrations.”
While the illustrations are limited to The Folio Society edition, an exhibition of Carey’s pastel-work originals goes on show at the Royal Glasgow Institute Kelly Gallery from next Saturday (July 24). On the gallery’s website, Carey describes how she prepared for the commission by immersing herself in the novel, reading it then listening to the audio-book while working on the drawings. “During my research into the history of Rob Roy, I discovered that there is very little known about him and very little artefacts to verify his existence. To this day, Rob Roy is remembered as either a Scottish Hero or a Cattle Stealing Rogue,” she writes in her artist statement.
First published in three volumes by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh in 1817, Rob Roy is set in 1715, during the first Jacobite uprising.
“When I read a book, I always wonder what the characters look like,” writes Carey, “so being able to bring the characters to life visually in drawings, was a wonderful way to express what I had absorbed ‘listening’ to Sir Walter Scott’s wonderful book on ‘Rob Roy’. I highly recommend it.”
The Rob Roy Drawings by June Carey exhibition is at the Royal Glasgow Institute Kelly Gallery 118 Douglas St, Glasgow, G2 4ET from July 24 to August 15. Full details at theroyalglasgowinstituteofthefinearts.co.uk/programme/the-rob-roy-drawings
The Folio Society limited edition of Rob Roy illustrated by June Carey and introduced by Diana Gabaldon is available exclusively at foliosociety.com/robroy Each of the 750 limited edition volumes is enclosed in a slipcase, numbered by hand and signed by both introducer and artist.
COMPETITION:
Lang may yer lum reek – though young people aged 11-18 only have until August 25 to write a Scots story, poem, play, song or make short video inspired by that famous phrase. The winner of this Scottish Book Trust competition, run in partnership with Hands Up for Trad, Scots Hoose and Education Scotland, will be named Young Scots Writer o the Year 2021 at a special ceremony. “Yer scrievins hae tae be in Scots, under 500 words (or five minutes),” say the organisers. Tae tak pairt in the Scots leid competition, visit scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/scots-story-competition-2021-lang-may-yer-lum-reek
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