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| Resurrection woman: crime writer revives reputation of the ‘Scottish Jane Austen’ | Resurrection woman: crime writer revives reputation of the ‘Scottish Jane Austen’ |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Edinburgh’s eerie gothic past, with its notorious “resurrection men” digging up graves under cover of the night in order to provide medical students with cadavers to dissect, is to receive a positive spin this New Year’s Day. | Edinburgh’s eerie gothic past, with its notorious “resurrection men” digging up graves under cover of the night in order to provide medical students with cadavers to dissect, is to receive a positive spin this New Year’s Day. |
| Once the revelry of the city’s Hogmanay celebrations has dwindled, the Scottish author Val McDermid has a plan to “resurrect” a forgotten literary heroine – the 19th-century Scottish novelist Susan Edmonstone Ferrier. | Once the revelry of the city’s Hogmanay celebrations has dwindled, the Scottish author Val McDermid has a plan to “resurrect” a forgotten literary heroine – the 19th-century Scottish novelist Susan Edmonstone Ferrier. |
| “Her writing stands up very well in comparison with the big-name Scottish writers of her day, like Sir Walter Scott, but the most remarkable thing about Ferrier is that memory of her has all but disappeared,” McDermid told the Observer this weekend, as she prepared for the launch of a city-wide project called New Year’s Resurrection that will run until 25 January. | “Her writing stands up very well in comparison with the big-name Scottish writers of her day, like Sir Walter Scott, but the most remarkable thing about Ferrier is that memory of her has all but disappeared,” McDermid told the Observer this weekend, as she prepared for the launch of a city-wide project called New Year’s Resurrection that will run until 25 January. |
| Using light displays designed by the Edinburgh-based specialists Double Take Projections and sound installations from Michael John McCarthy, Pippa Murphy and RJ McConnell, the crime writer plans to bring Ferrier back to life in the streets and steep “wynds” she once walked. | Using light displays designed by the Edinburgh-based specialists Double Take Projections and sound installations from Michael John McCarthy, Pippa Murphy and RJ McConnell, the crime writer plans to bring Ferrier back to life in the streets and steep “wynds” she once walked. |
| “I don’t think anything like this has ever been done before,” said McDermid, who is best known for her novel The Wire in the Blood. “As far as I know, there has never been an attempt to tell one story across 12 sites in one city.” | “I don’t think anything like this has ever been done before,” said McDermid, who is best known for her novel The Wire in the Blood. “As far as I know, there has never been an attempt to tell one story across 12 sites in one city.” |
| McDermid, who promises her story will also offer a few of her characteristically gruesome themes, said she was determined to re-establish Ferrier’s reputation so that one day she might stand alongside the male literary giants who have lived and worked in the city, such as Scott, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas De Quincey, and as a worthy predecessor to Edinburgh’s acclaimed female novelists Muriel Spark and JK Rowling. | McDermid, who promises her story will also offer a few of her characteristically gruesome themes, said she was determined to re-establish Ferrier’s reputation so that one day she might stand alongside the male literary giants who have lived and worked in the city, such as Scott, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas De Quincey, and as a worthy predecessor to Edinburgh’s acclaimed female novelists Muriel Spark and JK Rowling. |
| “I first came across Ferrier’s work when I was an undergraduate at Oxford,” said McDermid. “We were studying the early development of the novel, and I was interested in finding out if there were any Scottish writers working in that form then.” | “I first came across Ferrier’s work when I was an undergraduate at Oxford,” said McDermid. “We were studying the early development of the novel, and I was interested in finding out if there were any Scottish writers working in that form then.” |
| Ferrier’s work was “wildly popular in her lifetime”, according to McDermid. Her first work, Marriage, was written in 1810 but was published eight years later anonymously by the Edinburgh publisher William Blackwood. The first edition of 1,500 copies sold out within six months at a guinea a time, although at first many readers believed it had been written by Scott. Last week Virago republished Ferrier’s Marriage with a new foreword by McDermid to coincide with the Edinburgh project and on the eve of the 200th anniversary of its initial release. | Ferrier’s work was “wildly popular in her lifetime”, according to McDermid. Her first work, Marriage, was written in 1810 but was published eight years later anonymously by the Edinburgh publisher William Blackwood. The first edition of 1,500 copies sold out within six months at a guinea a time, although at first many readers believed it had been written by Scott. Last week Virago republished Ferrier’s Marriage with a new foreword by McDermid to coincide with the Edinburgh project and on the eve of the 200th anniversary of its initial release. |
| Ferrier went on to write a further two novels, The Inheritance and Destiny, which McDermid has described as “observant, witty and throwing wide a window on Scottish social life of the period”. | Ferrier went on to write a further two novels, The Inheritance and Destiny, which McDermid has described as “observant, witty and throwing wide a window on Scottish social life of the period”. |
| “For me, her work started off as a curiosity, but then I found it stood up against the competition at the time,” said McDermid. “It has certainly been the case that much of what people think of as Scottish writing is influenced by writers such as Scott, which is full of noble highlanders and battles and tartan. And those writers who did not provide as much of all that then rather fell by the wayside.” | “For me, her work started off as a curiosity, but then I found it stood up against the competition at the time,” said McDermid. “It has certainly been the case that much of what people think of as Scottish writing is influenced by writers such as Scott, which is full of noble highlanders and battles and tartan. And those writers who did not provide as much of all that then rather fell by the wayside.” |
| McDermid’s project has been co-commissioned by the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and she has worked with the director and dramaturg Philip Howard from the theatre company Pearlfisher and with the graffiti artist Elph and the actors Sandy McDade and Phyllis Logan. | McDermid’s project has been co-commissioned by the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and she has worked with the director and dramaturg Philip Howard from the theatre company Pearlfisher and with the graffiti artist Elph and the actors Sandy McDade and Phyllis Logan. |
| “It is a story and a walking tour but also a quasi-theatrical experience, and we have quite a few tricks up our sleeves,” Howard said. “Ferrier’s is a remarkable story, and Val asks some very topical questions about why, as a female Scottish writer, Ferrier has been excised from the literary history of the nation. | “It is a story and a walking tour but also a quasi-theatrical experience, and we have quite a few tricks up our sleeves,” Howard said. “Ferrier’s is a remarkable story, and Val asks some very topical questions about why, as a female Scottish writer, Ferrier has been excised from the literary history of the nation. |
| “It’s a beautiful piece of storytelling, but Val has had a lot of fun with it as well. We’re treading a course between honouring Susan’s legacy and restoring her voice and having a little bit of a crime caper along the way.” | “It’s a beautiful piece of storytelling, but Val has had a lot of fun with it as well. We’re treading a course between honouring Susan’s legacy and restoring her voice and having a little bit of a crime caper along the way.” |
| The story is inspired by the 19th-century tradition of publishing novels chapter by chapter and will begin at the historic Signet Library in the Old Town’s Parliament Square. Readers will then have to go on from one location to another to read the whole story, following instructions from an app, available in seven languages, or by more conventional street signage. | The story is inspired by the 19th-century tradition of publishing novels chapter by chapter and will begin at the historic Signet Library in the Old Town’s Parliament Square. Readers will then have to go on from one location to another to read the whole story, following instructions from an app, available in seven languages, or by more conventional street signage. |
| The mystery of Ferrier’s disappearance from bookshelves, McDermid argues, is as much down to her subject matter as her gender. “But I do think there was a feeling around then that if we already have one famous female author in Jane Austen, we don’t need any more,” said McDermid. “That, after all, is why the Brontës and George Eliot had to write as men. Yet she earned significantly more substantial publisher advances than Jane Austen. And now almost nobody knows her name. Susan Ferrier deserves better than this.” | The mystery of Ferrier’s disappearance from bookshelves, McDermid argues, is as much down to her subject matter as her gender. “But I do think there was a feeling around then that if we already have one famous female author in Jane Austen, we don’t need any more,” said McDermid. “That, after all, is why the Brontës and George Eliot had to write as men. Yet she earned significantly more substantial publisher advances than Jane Austen. And now almost nobody knows her name. Susan Ferrier deserves better than this.” |
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