The death of founder member of Dundee band the Associates, Alan Rankine, was announced earlier this week.

The group’s sound was perhaps most recognisable through the vocals of lead singer Billy McKenzie who sadly died in 1997.

This was the group’s first big hit.

The Associates: Party Fears Two

Alan Rankine: 17/3/1958 – 3/1/2023. So it goes.

Salt, 2017, p.

The story is split between 1985, when its main characters first meet as residents at Barclay Towers in Edinburgh, and events surrounding the Occupy protests of 2005. In 1985 Hume is drifting, waiting to find a job after his University degree. His more or less girlfriend Cat’s thoughts are ruled by mathematics. Ex-theology student St Francis is obsessed with finding the proper arrangement of his furniture. One night they are joined in the flat by DD (Diana the Damned as she calls herself) who accompanies Hume to a party. Soon Cat has taken herself off and Hume is in a long-term relationship with DD. St Francis befriends Megan, who had been begging on the streets – a new, shocking, thing in Thatcher’s Britain. Hume’s efforts to begin to make money lead to a role providing butling services to the middle classes.

Twenty years later Hume has made it and has conceived the idea for a Billionaires’ Banquet where the rich will consume only rice and water for the evening – at enormous cost – for charity. Hume’s embroilment with the activities of Melville, an Edinburgh gangster, will lead to complications for Hume, DD – now an addict on happy pills – St Francis, Megan, who has her head screwed on as far as Melville’s likely reactions to Hume’s decision to go it alone are concerned, and Cat, returned from her professorship in Australia for a conference only to get caught up unwillingly in the Occupy protests.

This precis sounds like the book is a thriller but it really isn’t. It’s an examination of youthful naivety and the compromises people make when finding their place in the world. It’s also a between the lines commentary on the change in public mores brought on by the Thatcher years. The characters are entirely believable (though DD’s later reliance on drugs for her to function is a bit overdone. Then again, it has a plot purpose.) However, the leap of twenty years between the two halves of the story jars a little. Butlin’s writing has some sharp observations and is never less than engaging.

Pedant’s corner:- “a dice” (dice is plural, one of them is a die,) “to get off his ass” (arse,) Spanis (Spanish,) paus (pause,) “ordinary men and woman” (women.)

Stromness, Orkney’s second biggest town, has a very good museum.

Due to Stromness’s seafaring past the museum has a bias towards polar exploration which these sculptures in bone reflect:-

There is also a large display of stuffed animals (mostly behind glass) but this turtle was above the door to the upstairs exhibition space:-

The background to one of the display cases was this illustration by Orkney painter Stanley Cursiter:-

Another of Orkney’s – indeed Stromness’s – favourite sons was the writer George Mckay Brown. The museum houses his Chair:-

Abacus, 2003, 203 p. First published 1989.

This is the tale of fifteen-year old Stella, taken on by a repertory company in post-World War 2 Liverpool to learn the ropes. She soon conceives a fancy for the director Meredith. This is unrequited. The reader soon realises Meredith is gay but of course Stella is ignorant of this – at least until nearly the end of the book.

Stella has been brought up by her Uncle Vernon since her mother left the city some time before the war. Of their seemingly endlessly recounted war experiences, “It was astonishing to Stella how fondly men remembered their darkest hours.” She also has encounters with male abusive behaviour, a member of the company spanks her with a newspaper, another comes out of the toilet still holding his penis, a reporter takes her to a cinema and manoeuvres her hand inside his trousers – all of which prompt her to reflect that “men were constantly worried that an essential part of themselves might have gone missing. They wanted instant access, just to make sure things were in place. What was more puzzling was why they needed everyone else to check as well.”

These incidents are just part of the ongoing nature of Stella’s existence, as she is coming to terms with adult life. They are scattered among the trials and tribulations of the company’s relationships – professional and personal. For a long time, though, it seems as though nothing is happening by way of plot, the major occurrence being an injury to a cast member during rehearsals for Peter Pan necessitating Meredith reluctantly calling upon the services of a relatively famous actor called O’Hara to play Captain Hook. Meredith and he have an antipathetic history. O’Hara’s arrival has ramifications for Stella and the reader’s understanding of her past for which Bainbridge has provided skilfully scattered clues.

Despite the slowness and the apparent inconsequentiality of proceedings it is this which elevates An Awfully Big Adventure to the status of literature even if what transpires does not quite live up to the implied promise of the title. Then again life (even a seemingly humdrum life has its moments) is an awfully big adventure.

Sensitivity warning:- there is a reference to a “nigger.”

Pedant’s corner:- “the curb” (kerb. Kerb was used later,) distainful (disdainful,) “which overlooked the booking hall or the station” (of the station makes more sense,) “a spring of crab apple” (a sprig is more likely,) “she couldn’t breath” (couldn’t breathe,) “she was stood in the wings” (she was standing.) “‘Mr Potter’s a Catholic!’ asked Stella, shaken.” (ought to have a question mark, not an exclamation mark,) “until her remembered” (he remembered,) “old time’s sake” (times’,) hiccoughs (hiccups,) “unearthly yet real of Mary Deare” (????) rarified (rarefied,) “‘in her case its aggravated’” (it’s,) accidently (accidentally,) “waited were he was” (where he was,) “‘before you go down to the nursery, he said, ‘may I remind you’” (is missing the end quote mark after nursery.

The previous time we visited the Brough of Birsay see here and here, the rain started to come in horizontally so we cut things short.

In June this year the weather was much more amenable.

On the way up we had stopped off at Marwick Head again.

Hoy from Marwick Head, Old man of Hoy just visible poking up at right hand end of island:-

Marwick Head from Brough of Birsay, Kitchener Memorial standing out on Marwick Head:-

Mainland Orkney from Brough of Birsay:-

Viking ruins lie close to the causeway from the mainland:-

This time we were able to stroll to the lighthouse:-

Stevenson Lighthouse, Brough of Birsay from path across the brough:-

Close up:-

From northwest:-

From South:-

This traditional greeting seems increasingly performative these days.

When was the last time the world had a good year?

Nevertheless we have to be cheerful – as Mona Lott kept saying.