Robbie Burns was born on the 25th January 1759, which would make him 257 years old.
Video by Eric Windhorst
Being of Scottish decent, I would like to share some happy and blurred digital memories of an unforgettably brilliant Britsoc Burns’ Night 2016— the annual celebratory tribute to the life, works and spirit of the great Scottish poet at the British School of Amsterdam on Saturday 30th January 2016.
Tonight’s celebration, like past Burn’s Nights, had a unique group character, which distinguishes the Britsoc celebration from every other. The gathering has plenty of haggis, neeps and tatties to go around, and some have their favourite Scotch tipple to keep them warm.
I know I did…
The Britsoc Burns Supper is littered with individual talents within our mists who have their own special flavour of captivating storytelling, singing and poetry.
I have to say that John Cameron-Webb is slowly turning into a pop star. His band ‘The McVities’ were tighter than my aunt Meg’s Scottish purse. Anika was in splendid voice, and combined with their violinist took it to a level of musicality that I haven’t felt since seeing Fairport Convention live—one of the most innovative and influential British bands of the late 1960’s and are still recording and touring today. The lead singer during their greatest period was Sandy Denny who was in my opinion the greatest female vocalist of that or any era.
John Richardson (with some memory help from Dee Bodle)
By Andy Symmonds
By Alison Smith
I love the sense of calm I always get when I enter the courtyard of The Hermitage in Amsterdam. It’s as though the bustle and rush of the canals outside suddenly switch off and you can hear the birds sing. The same sense of calm pervades the Hermitage building. I was there last Saturday, too early for tourism to ruin the peace, and just in time for an early lunch with my Zine colleague, Dave Thomas, followed by a leisurely wander around the exhibition of The Spanish Masters, which is currently showing until 29th May 2016.
Upstairs and the time moves on quickly. We cut to Goya, albeit briefly, and the exhibition has some of his interesting and best political etchings. He is known for his depiction of violent scenes and the etchings on show “Los desastres de la guerra” (The disasters of war) record the horrors of the Napoleonic War and leave you under no illusions as to his opinion of the savage cruelty which took place. There is one Goya painting, a rather sad but beautiful portrait of an actress who died shortly after he finished the painting. Being a big fan of Goya, I was a bit disappointed not to find more examples of his work.
The Strangler Vine was recommended to me by a bookseller from Daunt Books, a shop I haunt when I am in London. Miranda Carter, author of an award-winning biography of Anthony Blunt and wife of the economic journalist and fiction writer John Lanchester, has launched herself into literary thriller writing with an adventure in colonial India in the 19th century. The hapless young Ensign William Avery, always British, ever in uniform, is paired with the intelligence agent gone native, Jeremiah Blake, and sent off to track down a British author who has gone missing in a jungle where Kali-worshipping Thugs are undermining British rule. This is a romp of a read which includes a tiger hunt and high adventure. The sequel, Infidel Stain, reunites the detectives in Victorian London where a series of murders in Drury Lane requires investigation.
Lily King’s book Euphoria was one of the New York Times’ top ten for 2014. It is the feverish, scintillating tale of three anthropologists striving to come to grips with the culture and societies of various tribes in the bush of New Guinea. Loosely based on a 1933 field trip to the Sepik River made by Margaret Mead, her then husband, and her future husband, it is a taut tale of new ideas in understanding other cultures – and a love triangle. Mead was a highly emancipated thinker with a personalized approach to studying groups of people and King has written a brilliant novel about a part of her life.
