Essence of Edinburgh

'This book is a personal journey – an eccentric odyssey – exploring aspects of past and present, people and places. It is an evocation rather than a history.'



A city of fascinating unpredictability is how Jenni Calder describes Edinburgh. In an eccentric odyssey that is equally fascinating and unpredictable, she discovers the essence of the city beyond the iconic centre. With a passionate sense of place, she evokes personal experience alongside vivid accounts of Edinburgh given by others. In the Grassmarket, she recalls Sir Walter Scott's dramatisations of riot and public execution. On Blackford Hill, she takes pleasure in the account given by the 'Silent Traveller' Chiang Yee of walking backwards to the summit. Crossing the Dean Bridge brings to mind Naomi Mitchison's imagined descent into the vertiginous Dean Gorge. Jenni Calder's journeys through this most 'walkable' of cities brings a new appreciation of Edinburgh into being.