Fair point. I do love Edinburgh so I'm not knocking it, just stating that it gives the impression that the BEST writers come from there, rather than the MOST. The difference, I think, is important.

This is difficult for a Glaswegian (well..almost) to say but...apropos previous correspondence...yep! Mike's list is spot on and situates Edinburgh perfectly as both the primary seat of the Scottish Enlightenment (before we finally hooked up with our aggressive southern neighbour :-) and the subsequent Scottish Renaissance led by writers like MacDiarmid and Sorley McLean...but the list runs out too soon...Irvine Welsh, A.L.Kennedy (whose good if you like bleak optimism...it's the optimism I have difficulty with)...Welsh in particular has been an important voice in new english literature...Trainspotting got young people reading and they continued to read because someone was writing about something (albeit OTT) that they recognised (drugs, sex, aids, desperation)...the output is patchy and the writing very demotic but it is undoubtedly literary.

Course the City of Balderdash thing is meaningless tourist hype to get us to consume rather than consider but Edinburgh has a cultural identity and role in english as the capital of the "other" english speaking country up until 1776 which kind of outbids "Dorwich"...sorry, am I ranting? Well yes...don't get me started on Glasgow!


John

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PS The Forest of Dean can keep JK if they want to...

Well, waxy, I reckon a fare few of those I've mentioned ARE of the best! In respect of thinking a well as quality of writing, as matheson says..... by the way, m, I did mention Irvine Welsh, but misspelled his surname......oh, the shame!


Best,

Mike

Yes you did. I just noticed. Abject apologies for my my traduction of your excellent taste.
rgds
John

John,
Don't think I've ever encountered anyone using 'traduction' before! I love the word traduce, but I don't think that construction had occurred to me.....but, of course, reduce > reduction etc. Will try in future to use it at any given opportunity!

Best,

Mike

So Tolkien, Lewis, Byron, Tennyson, Shelly, Dickens, Pepys, Wilde, et al, don't even get a look in? That's not fair. And I hate to point it out, but you are obviously biased, as you are living in Scotland and most probably Scottish.

Sorry, I must disagree. England very rightfully deserves the title, and the city should be Oxford. You cant honestly compare Welsh to Tolkien, or Hume and Scott to C.S Lewis and Carroll. Ivanhoe was a great read, but the writers listed above modernised English language and literature, and gave inspiration to a whole new era of storytelling.






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And you can keep J.K Rowling. We don't want her :)

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I also find it interesting that nobody's mentioned Stratford-upon-Avon. Poor old Shakespeare must be turning in his grave...

Well, Old Bill belongs to the world, and was he a person or a committee? Was he, indeed, perhaps Kit Marlowe, in which case that crown goes to Canterbury.
Oxford? All those twinkling Inklings? All that second-hand German mythology, with its racism, supremicism, mysoginy and bigotry? Pah!
Oh, and Tolkien was South African, Wilde Irish.
Snicker-snack!


Love and Mercy,

Mike

Don't all good writers belong to the world? Argueably, Shakespeare is the most famous writer in the world, and whichever way you look at it, he was quintisentially English. It's been an intersting discussion though, and the points you've highlighted have certainly set me thinking. I've played devil's advocate here for too long. Perhaps Edinburgh does deserve the title, after all. It certainly deserves to be in the running. When will it be announced?

But, seriously, Dublin is probably the main contender; from Swift to Berkley to Wilde and Yeats, to Synge, O'Casey and Behan and Beckett and Flann O'Brien and, and, and.........
The Irish are feckin amazing and we should all bow down before them. Congreve, Sheridan, Shaw, Sebastian Barry...................and so it goes.

Best,
Mike

You missed Joyce...but lets not go there...there are a lot of Irish writers now I think on't...But surely this "City of" stuff simply reflects the primitive technology of the 19th century literary-industrial complex where the poor chiels had to traipse away to somewhere like London, Edinburgh, Dublin or Oxford to find someone else to talk to...Now we have the internet and can stay at home and haver to like minded people in our pyjamas (or not!) ;-)

"Auchenshoogle for the VPN of literature 2010"!

John

They think it's all over............IT IS NOW!

along with Dublin it's got the best collection of second-hand bookshops in the UK

erm... it's been a while since Dublin was part of the UK...

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sorry - very old thread - just noticed it!

Ha ha ha! Let's not go here again!

The forest is proud to number Dennis Poter. F W Harvey, Ivor Gurney, Winfred Foley to name but a few who have added to the country's and indeed the world's literature.

It may be true that J K Rowling literary talent does not compare in some way with these great writers but she has encouraged many many children and indeed adults to read who perhaps otherwise would not and on behalf of the Royal Forest we would be happy to welcome her back into the most beautiful part of the UK.

Why is it so many peopel decry her she has surley achieved what so many strive for and it is very likely that if you don't like her work she in turn may not like yours

keep writing

david

ps look at the events calender for the Voices in The Forest Dennis Potter festival the week of 21st to 27th June

David.. I think you may have hit the nail on the head...nobody likes anyone who "makes" it( or so it seems in this country )AND earns billions AND looks attractive AND whose stories are read all around the world..( the cheek of it!!) pah.. grrr..$$$£££....