Well that was tiring...

Yes I'm back and whoop! whoop! not going away again until next Saturday which gives me a whole week at home to work rest and catch the blog up with what I've been doing.

 

The main purpose of week one was library based  research in Edinburgh. I was rather dreading the trip to the National Library but in fact my day there went quite smoothly. Either their invigilators were having an off day, or for once I didn't break one of their multifarious unwritten rules of conduct for the special collections room. I know I sound defensive, but when you have been ordered on one occasion to pick your (official issue) plastic bag up from the floor and put it on the desk and on the next occasion told in no uncertain terms to take the bag off the table and put it on the floor it tends to make you a bit wary.

 

Going to the Edinburgh University Library is in contrast always a pleasure. The staff are helpful, friendly and very efficient ( see NLS, it can be done!), and there's a lovely café although on this occasion I didn't use it as the queue when I came out of their Special Collections Room was horrendous.

 

I also spent some time meeting someone who is almost as fascinated with my poet as I am. He was given a book of the poetry by his wife which she had found in a second hand bookshop in Edinburgh and it turned out to be the poet's own copy and heavily annotated by him. Some of the annotations were only done when the poet was very ill - it's hard to be brought face to face with a manifestation of someone's mental breakdown. But useful too. And anyway it was nice to talk to someone else who a) you know is interested in the topic and b) as a result doesn't need a lot of background explanation before the conversation becomes meaningful. It's all very well choosing to write about someone or something overlooked or obscure, but it can sometimes be a lonely furrow to plough.