The Devil and Michael Scot: A Gallimaufry of Fife and Beyond (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781913162108)

This book offers you a virtual tour of much of Fife, mainly of its 'fringe of gold'. It starts just west of Newburgh at the border with Perthshire and ends at the Kincardine Bridge, with substantial forays inland. The county's international bearings are highlighted, with poetry and prose invoking ancestral 'Fifers' such as the Russian poet Mikhaïl Lermontov and the American novelist Herman Melville of 'Moby-Dick'. Goethe's 'Faust' finds a Scottish accent of sorts (as also the Shakespeare of 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest'), and Alexander Pushkin unknowingly borrows a tale from Dunfermline's Robert Henrysoun.The centre-piece, which provides the title of our gallimaufry, is a play based on the vicissitudes of Michael Scot of Balwearie, the medieval polymath famous in both legend and history, and centering on his pact with the devil. More recent local heroes are celebrated, not least Joe Corrie of 'In Time o' Strife'. 'This is what makes Tom Hubbard such a rewarding guide: a man steeped in the places and tales of the Kinrick who doesn't get run over by them, rather he manages to unfold fresh visions, partly because - as cosmopolitan traveller and translator, all human effort lies before him.' - from CHRISTOPHER HARVIE's Foreword.

Author: Tom Hubbard
ISBN-10: 1913162109
ISBN-13: 9781913162108
Publisher: Grace Note
Language: English
Published: 04/16/2020
Pages: 164
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.39lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.35d