Caro Ramsay's Blog, page 4

Dancing on the dark side

Imagine opening up your email to the following request;
Would you like to come on the radio and record a ten minute interview, talking about your favourite piece of classical music?It sounds great but then you get thinking….anything too high brow I'm going to look like a smart Alex. Anything too lowbrow and I will look a numpty.So I emailed back, Are you ok with something that everybody can hum?Oh yes, he said, you are a crime writer.I got the subtext there ( no exclusion on numpties).
                              
                   BBC Scotland. No need for weather forecast, just look out window

Not an easy choice. Ben, the lovely production assistant gave me some advice. ‘Something that means a lot to you, something that you really relate to or is linked with a special event in your life or your career.’

                                          
                                                 Inside the BBC

I was still stumped. But after a think I picked the one that made me seem slightly less psychotic than the one I really wanted to choose. O Fortuna is my favourite  but I decided on the  Danse Macabre.
                               I listen to O Fortuna while walking the  dog  just before I write something a bit ‘stalky’ and ‘gruesome’. What I didn’t realise is that Mondegreens for O Fortuna is some kind of national sport. Just google, YouTube, O Fortuna Misheard Lyrics, strap yourself in to prevent injury as you fall about laughing.  You'll never think about North Korea again without imagining an octopus in boots. (You can see why I felt it best to avoid talking about that piece of music now, I would have been locked up.)

But what fun a crime writer can have with the ‘ dance around death’ that is Saint Saen’s Dance Macabre. It’s very clever with its little question and answer. Are ye dancing? Are ye askin? The fact that it is death who is doing the asking adds a little frisson.

                                           It started off as a tone poem – just a little narrative told in seven minutes. In old folklore at  Halloween Death goes back to the graveyard and asks the dead to rise and dance. (Again on YouTube you can see skeletons doing breakdancing and aerobics to the tune.)   It starts with the harp sounding the 12 chimes of midnight, and ends with the cock crowing the new dawn (oboe). If you listen carefully you can hear the dialogue between death and the dead. I did read somewhere that the violin is tuned slightly differently to give it that discordant sound, it just feels slightly uneasy as it reaches the ear. Somewhere in the middle is a sample of tone of the Gregorian chants from the Requiem Mass.
                                       
                                            The Lord Of The Danse

The ‘Danse Macabre’ poem which was written two years before the orchestral piece, was all about liberty and egalitarianism - death being the great leveller - The Grim Reaper will summon representatives from all walks of life to dance, the emperor will dance with the pauper. And the tone of the poem does suggest that there is a ‘desire for amusement’ while amusement is still possible.
“Emperor, your sword won't help you outSceptre and crown are worthless hereI've taken you by the handFor you must come to my danceWhether rich or poor, all are equal in death."

The English translation of the poem  by Henri Cazalis  says‘Striking a tomb with his heel,Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,You can hear the cracking of the bones of the dancers.A lustful couple sits on the mossSo as to taste long lost delights.A veil has fallen! The dancer is naked.Her partner grasps her amorously.The lady, it's said, is a marchioness or baronessAnd her green gallant, a poor cartwright.Horror! Look how she gives herself to him,Like the rustic was a baron.
That’s sounds my kind of party.

                                                
                                                        Yu Na Kim

When the Danse Macabre was first premiered it was not received with overwhelmingly enthusiastic reviews. The audience found it rather disturbing. But since then it has grown in popularity,  Anna Pavlova danced to it, the world record score in ice skating womens short programme was to it,  it has anchored Sherlock Holmes and  Jonathan Creek.  It was used in Hedda Gabler and The Turn Of The Screw.  It is the great non verbal clue that Something Bad Is About To Happen.
                                     
                                                

The best versions I think must be by the full orchestra. I’m  not too keen on the grand piano duet version, too clean, too clinical,  while I admire the technical skill- there seems little humour in those versions.

                                           
                                                       Henri Cazalis

But…There is a young Dutch organist called Gerd Van Hoef, he looks about 12 but I think he is 20? He plays it on the local organ and what a noise he makes! It’s fabulous! For a clumsy dude like me, to see his feet and hands fly over those keyboards producing that noise, nodding at his pals to pull out or push in the stops at the right time... it takes me back to Esmerelda and the bells the bells….



                                           Gerd- pulling out all the stops.

Which brings me neatly onto the subject of synaesthesia.  I am a synaesthesetic ( I think most writers will be) and I was surprised when I saw a TV programme that pointed out it wasn’t normal, ( that’s normal in the scientific sense).  But all it means is that stimulation to certain parts of the brain lead to excess stimulation or association with other parts of the brain. Even as I write this I’m thinking, Isn’t everybody synaesthetic in some way? Why do some musical chords make us (universally)  feel fearful.  Is it  A flat minor that is the most sinister chord? No  jokes about pianos going down  coal shafts….

                                          
                                               Singing the rainbow...

All music has a colour, surely?   Most music has a vision that goes along with it?  Surely that’s why folk close their eyes to listen – are they not all watching the accompanying film that is playing on the back of their eyelids. …Or is it just me….
Caro Da

The 21 sexiest crime writers according to....

Here are bits of a blog stolen from Matt Rees, who is
a) very charming
b) a wee bit naughty
c) bored!!!
d) a great writer
e) Welsh!




That was in no order of importance by the way.
He posted bits of this on his own website on Tuesday this week and has caused huge hilarity since. Well he did in my house. I have forgiven Matt (almost) for beating me to Best Debut Novel Dagger. I don't think I have forgiven him for writing a novel  better than mine but I do plan my revenge on a daily basis.

Here's what he got up to...  a Tuesday....bored.... He's in bold.


My comments are both tongue in cheek and italic.
The 21 Sexiest Crime Novelistsby Matt ReesKiller good looks from writers who kill in their books"Crime novelists are the sexiest writers. Of course writers aren’t noted for sexiness. Go to a reading by a “literary novelist” and you’ll either encounter an author who looks like a fat, drunk librarian or a pallid fifteenth-century inquisitor. But when you go to a reading by a thriller writer, the movies that’re developed from their books create an expectation that a male writer will be rugged and handsome like an action star and a female writer will be slinky and knowing like a thriller femme fatale. And some of them are. Here’s the list of the 21 sexiest writers in crime fiction, the sexiest genre in all literature."

He starts with my mate Helen FitzGerald who is an Aussie but lives down the road fromme in Glasgow. She once showed me how she had to sit to get this photo taken.I think she hurt her neck.




Gregg Hurwitz
Matt says that Gregg is "tall and athletic, a soccer player who also dedicates a novel tohow cute his little daughters are. What’s not to love? Also happens to have writtenthe most explosive opening of any recent thriller in Trust No One."As my Gran would say 'he looks like he could shift a piano for you.'


Jasmine SchwartzMatt says  "Her Melissa Morris mysteries are loaded with sexual tension, seduction,
and irritable bowel syndrome."I confess that this lady is a new writer to me but she's on my list now.She's also Matt's wife. Great photo.


James ThompsonMatt describes him as "Corruption, sex-trafficking, and a hero with a nasty, violent streak. A Finnish residency permit, and a tattoo. Read Helsinki Blood."He looks a moody froody doody to me.  I already have this book on my shelf, it's fab.




Zoe FerrarisMatt says 'Living in the Middle East I’ve always found the fully covered ladymysterious and alluring. Finding Nouf is a beautiful novel that even makes Saudi sexy.'Again, a new writer to me, but on my list.



Barry EislerMatt is impressed by  this guys hair!"A former CIA operative and judo black belt. Start with A Clean Kill in Tokyo,the first of his books about anti-hero John Rain."He sounds like someone you don't want to mess with. I think my pit bull would think twice.



Megan Abbott
"The thinking man’s crime fiction crumpet, the naughty ingenue of noir witha PhD in English and American literature. The Song is You is steamy and tense."I know Megan, she looks like a small delicate creature and her intellect is awesome.


Philip SingtonMatt wants Philip to be the next James Bond. "Born to a British intelligence officer and an industrial chemist, tall, sophisticated, sweet, and cosmopolitan (married to a German.) The Valley of Unknowing is about a womanizer. That certainly could be considered sexy."

Tess GerritsenMatt says..."The self-confessed intense tiger-mommy of crime fiction also hasundeniable sex appeal. The Silent Girl is a gripping story of secrets that haunt several lives, and what’s more sexy than a secret?"



Camilla Lackberg"The kind of looks that made Sweden famous for…You know what it’s famous for.One of her books includes a corpse found in the tub, so Camilla posted a nice picof herself in a bubble bath with shapely leg extended. I rushed to order The Ice Princess,of course. Which is, like all her others, a thrill."

Zoe Sharp"Motorbikes and handguns and blonde hair. Okay, you’re on the list. Her self-sufficient,irascible heroine Charlie Fox is at her best in Die Easy."I think Matt is very brave.Very brave indeed.



Robert Crais"A tough-guy squint and a Batman jaw gets L.A. bestseller Crais onto the list. He lives with his wife and their cats. But I won’t kick him off the list for that. My favorite of his Elvis Cole novels is Stalking the Angel."



Caro Ramsay"A lovely Glasgow accent and a nice authorial turn in disemboweling andother gruesomenesses. Caro’s a medical professional. She’s like Patricia Cornwellwithout the private helicopter but with more atmosphere."
How did Matt Guess I don't have a helicopter????





Christopher G. Moore"An urbane expat at home in the fleshpots of Thailand like his hero Vincent Calvino, Chris has a decency and worldliness that’s in itself reminiscent of some of thegreat noir heroes."



Christa Faust"A former dominatrix, Christa has one of the most flesh-filled author pages onFacebook, often featuring her tattoos. I like the pulpishness of her Money Shotand I’m looking forward to reading her newest Butch Fatale, Dyke Dick."Now come on, who read, then reread the first three words of Matt's blurb about Christa? I bet Jeff didn't get any further....



Ian Rankin"Dark and stubbly and candid with a taste for raucous rock. His Inspector Rebus novel Strip Jack has some pleasantly sexy naughtiness."I emailed Matt and said that you don't get sexy men from Edinburgh. Apart from that Sean Connery bloke.  And Ian is fae Fife.


Alafair BurkeMatt says..."Her 212 is an investigation of internet prurience (a bit like this list) with a thrilling conclusion. A law professor, Alafair is the thinking man’s crime writing crumpet (unless the thinking man is still thinking of Megan Abbott — see above.)"After making sure that prurience meant what I thought it did, I think I agree with Matt.  I think.  Sorry. still thinking about Sean Connery's tattoo.



Rebecca Cantrell"A great series set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany. Cool enough to havewritten novels specifically for reading on cellphones, iDracula and iFrankenstein." says Matt.


Jason Goodwin"The thinking woman’s crime fiction crumpet (the thinking man is still busy thinkingabout Alafair and Megan). A Cambridge University student of Byzantine history (hence his Inspector Yashim novels) with the look of a rumpled English gent."A man of 'gratuitous linen'  was how Jason was described to me. And he can eithercook or he knows a lot about cooking. He once complained to me that he'd been toGlasgow and got out unscathed.





Gillian Flynn"Truly sexy, and not only for eviscerating marriage in Gone Girl. Wins the prize for best cheekbones on the Sexiest Crime Novelists list."



Laura Lippman"Even if her #itsokkimnovak selfie hadn’t illustrated that we focus too much on youth in women, she’d be on the list. Of course that selfie only made her sexier. My favorite of hers is What The Dead Know."

So that is his list.......
Caro         

The Invisible Disease

I don’t think that Britain is alone in having disconcertingly conflicting attitudes towards women and size.In the space of an hour last week four items caught my eye, and prompted me to blog. I thought it might stop me ranting. It didn’t.                                 
                                                         Olympic GoldThe first was the concern of the officials that govern Ski Jumping. These sensible chaps know that every kilo of body weight costs the jumper 1.5 metres, so all competitive jumpers keep their body weight very low. Concern for their health prompted new rules so that any jumper with a BMI under 18.5 gets penalised.                                           
                                                              Gold!The second was a study just published that showed 2, 288  people were admitted to hospital last year in England and Wales for eating disorders. That was an increase of 16% on the previous year.  The biggest jump was for those admissions of girls aged between 10 and 15 years of age. One  tenth of all the girls admitted were 15 years of age.  Horrifically, 47 of these admissions were  between five and nine years old. In terms of mortality, eating disorders are the most dangerous form of mental illness; 20% do not survive the condition. A figure that is probably lower than it should be due to the actual recorded ‘cause of death’ being a different but related condition.
The third was a report that more than 75% of those who suffer from an eating disorder admit that  bullying was part of their ‘significant  cause.’  The same study two years ago showed a figure 8%  lower. The link is a simple one;  young people are more susceptible to having low self esteem and any bullying feeds into that causing a downward spiral. Eating is one way to regain control of life, and the more control, the more the condition spirals, the more comfort there is in it. Not only a vicious circle but a deadly one. "Anorexia became my friend,’ is a worrying statement for anyone to make. A very worrying statement for somebody who is 14 years old.
The fourth thing ??( I was screaming at the TV by now so I don’t really know what the fourth thing was)  It was something to do with the word ‘Thinspiration’ being banned from some social media sites. It then discussed the ‘pro ana’ sites which promote ideas to lose weight and unhealthy  weight management.I had a wee look at some of them. One idea of support on their online community was to post a photo of yourself so others can call you fat. One 14 year old was chuffed with her 47 comments calling her overweight. It motivated her to lose three stones.That is dangerous and deadly.  Makes you wonder if her mother is aware, or if her mother would be allowed to help even if she was.One website shows users this warning ; "Eating disorders are not lifestyle choices, they are mental disorders that if left untreated can cause serious health problems or could even be life-threatening."
Pauline Quirke, Acting Gold.
The causes of anorexia are varied  and extremely complex. Each sufferer will have a myriad of multi-layered issues. It is a genetic, chemical, hormonal and psychological issue.  And social media is just  reinforcing that these  abnormal ideas are normal. As one expert said, biology loads the gun, culture pulls the trigger                                             
                                                Dawn French Comedy GoldInterestingly, in holistic medicine eating disorders are also incredibly difficult to treat , the key phrase in my experience is ‘protection of self’. The body itself  shuts off from  any therapy,  as it will not yield enough control to accept help.  And that only increases the spiral of  desperation.
I know the States uses a different size system to us. I’m using the UK system here…. A size 10 is 32/22/34. I think that is thin. Most UK models are a UK size 8 or 10 ( but in perfect proportion), although I notice US sizes  are quoted in British magazines as being a “US size 0”.This is something to aspire to. Seemingly.
And these magazines claim to be ‘getting behind’ a ‘ Keep It Real’ campaign to limit the use of  air brushing  on models, and  using more real size models ( the size 10’s that will be). However,  I nipped out and  picked up one cheap celebrity magazine at random. This is aimed I would say at the age range of those impressed by 1 Direction and Justin Beiber, so I conclude, the younger end of the teenage market.It had  84 printed pages, 22 full page adverts,  10 more of crosswords, reviews and TV stuff. Here’s what the rest was  about…                                        
                                                              Adele Singing GoldThe front page had three pictures ..One unairbrushed female in a bikini. Good start. She’s lost 2st 5lb in two months.That’s 33 lbs in 8 weeks. Healthy weight loss is 2lb per week (one pound is 3500 calories, so "lb a week loss is not eating 7000 calories). So in that time she should have lost 16 lbs, not 33.
Some celebrity  “skinnier than ever” (in a congratulatory tone), great photo of them (size 8 down a 6 maybe), and another celebrity panicking about getting in shape for the big day… regardless of the fact that she’s new mum!No pressure from the front page then.
Double page spread. ‘Soap stars get skinny’, with the use of the word  ‘thinspiration.’ And another double page spread of some tiny models on the cat walk- their knees the widest part of their leg.‘My new daughter is my priority, not my weight’, says one star. Oh good I thought, the voice of reason. But in the picture she looks noticeably thinner. “Bikini snaps made me want to lose weight”, says another celeb. She looks a size 10 in the before snaps and in need of a good dinner in the after. Then another double page spread of women unhappy with their breast reconstructions…. Unhappy before, and unhappy afterwards. Over the page we have a celebrity diet diary that included glasses of wine and hangovers, with constant reinforcement of the idea that the only way to feel good about yourself is to change your appearance. By surgery if necessary. The diet page has a size 6, female ‘star’ with her  daily diet. She has a lollypop head.There is another one dieting for her wedding so that ‘he’ will fancy her on her big day. I think she could swap him for a bar of chocolate. Then there are the rules for a 400 calorie a day diet. With the proviso that it might be unhealthy. The are a few worrying words in that sentence, 'might' be the one that worries we most.                                             
                                                  Lizzie - Olympic GoldCurrent thinking is that the best way to fight eating disorders is to cultivate a peer group that are aware  of the pressures and see them for what they are. And to question them and the values of the society that promotes them.I don’t think we are quite there yet.
I was so fed up I've included some photos of good role models- all very talented ladies.
Caro

I do a lot of research for the MIE blog I do, representin...

I do a lot of research for the MIE blog I do, representing Scotland every Friday.
This week’s effort was immense.  I had to sit down with three friends drinking latte and eating huge slices of lemon and lime marble cheesecake.                              
I hope you appreciate the depth of my endeavour and the way I suffer for my art.Backstory- At the moment I am auctioning off a character’s name for the Clic Sergeant charity to help children with cancer.
                                                                             A nice enough thing to do, but it can be fraught with all kinds of difficulty because, for me anyway, the name has to fit the character.   So I don’t know which character is going to be renamed. I can’t leave a character blank and write them in called ‘anon’ then just stick the name in, in case the name is not a good fit.  It needs to fit.  A name says so much more than just the label for that character. It has to suit the character, like a well chosen hat.  Confused? Well, what do these hats say about these guys??
      


There are some stereotypes that the reader feels comfortable with. Sometime, in a complicated story, it’s better to name within some ‘boundaries’.In Scotland we have a weird class of society who wear tracksuits but never go to the gym. They tend to have tattoos and pit bulls. Some have tattooed pit bulls. And spiky hair. They are typified by a banner my lawyer friend saw hanging out a window, it said ‘Happy Thirtieth Birthday Granny!’

                                     
Their children will be called Nike, Luca, Princess, Pocohontas, Chantelle, Savannnah, Tyrone, Jasmin. The infamous Yehudi McEwan is an example of this.
Folk with a bit more money are doing the Olivia, Andrew, Niven, Owen, Elizabeth, Jessica thing at the moment. Trendy folk will call their kids anything but spell it the Gaelic way sentencing their kids to a lifetime of spelling it out.  True Gaelic speakers are called Donalda (daughter of Donald), Hectorina (daughter of Hector) etc. The ‘Ina’  is pronounced as in line.
I have no idea where Chinaide came from. The person came from Dundee but I have idea where the spelling came from.
Folk with loads of money are still with Findlay, Angus, Douglas, Callum, Alistair for their kids.
Here a stripper called Gladys would not sound right unless she is Welsh. Effie is a cleaner, not a neuro surgeon.   Mavis would be over 60. Colins make good librarians.  Did that help? No.
It depends on where you are in the world of course as to whether a name is common place or exotic but it does matter to the story. My cop, Vik Mulholland is spelled that way just to remind readers he has a Russian mother. Which came in very handy in book four but there has been that wee reminder there since book one.
The last time I auctioned a name off, it was bought by a lawyer. I then had to write a sex scene for the character. I emailed him to make sure he was ok with that and explained that the sex scene was very short. He emailed me back and told me that any sex scene with him involved would be very long indeed, many pages, 50 shades indeed. So I killed him.
When I do workshops I put a name in front of the class and get them to list what the name suggests. For this blog I got three friends together and asked them to describe the person that went along with the names of my fellow bloggers. The friends were female, two are sane and the other is a beauty therapist (BT). They all read, but not crime fiction so had no idea who they were talking about.  I have just listed their comments as I jotted them down. Some of it is uncanny. Some of it was unprintable.
                                                                                       The other Ramsay....
Caro Ramsay; They know me of course. Nobody is actually called Caro. You just chopped your name in half. And the Ramsays were a load of sheep stealing murderers.  The blonde ones swear a lot.Verdict; No great fictional depth to any of that
Zoe Sharp; Young? Sounds dangerous?  Bright. I mean Zoe Blunt would be quite different, wouldn’t she. She sounds about 12. Is she a snow boarder? If not, she should be. BT thought she was a fashion designer, edgy, size 6. But all agree, she’s a Brit.Verdict; precocious, very thin fashion designer who designs winter sports gear.
Lisa Brackmann; BT- did she not sing ‘self control’ (Laura Brannigan?).  She’s an American?  Downhill skier? Swimmer, something athletic.  Yeah, if she’s a librarian or a secretary or something she’s only doing that because she’s a spy. Way too young to be mumsy. All Lisa’a are young.  Tall, slender, long black hair. Cindy Crawford.Verdict; supermodel discovered in a library and models swim wear for Zoe above.
                                                                                     Stanely Trollip being 'nicked'?
Stanley Trollip; A real cockney geezer. Probably in the Sweeny. He’d say ‘watch it guvner’ a lot. Lovable rogue.The other one disagreed.  Stanley to her was wearing flannels, a brown suit, hiding in a  courtyard at Oxbridge with some kind of secret formula.  He’d be really intelligent but might not manage to tie his shoe laces properly.  He’d be there in the 1930’s, in the golden age.  But English for definite.Verdict; Stanley Trollip belongs in The 39 steps.                                                
Yrsa Sigurdardottir; She must be Lithuanian (BT).  Supermodel. Sexy smouldering. Swedish blonde, (??)   Or is that an Icelandic name?  She could be something to do with volcanoes. Or fish. She could wear a white coat and hold a clipboard, letting her hair tumble down at the right moment. A love interest for defo.  Big blockbuster American film…. She’ll be stopping a meteor in her lunch hour saving the planet from destruction. While having an affair with Michael Fassbender. (BT- she has a thing about Fassbender.)
Verdict; Hollywood’s next big thing!  
                                                                               Saving a planet from an Icelandic meteor??
Annamaria Alfieri. (BT thought she was at school with Annamaria, her dad owned a café on the Govan road) but the other two are now well in the swing of it.  Mafia moll! Voluptuous, dangerous, probably has a stiletto knife down her stocking top. Or an Opera singer, does Tosca.  She lives in the foothills of Rome to protect her voice. She  will have lots of wee dogs that have ribbons in their hair.  Handsome young men run about after her. She’ll have a lot of tantrums. Verdict; an opera singer in trouble with the mob who throws herself off the tower in Tosca and somebody has sabotaged the landing. Colin Dexter will write a book about it, Morse will solve the crime. The music to the film will be fab!

ls he pulling her hair?
Jeff Siger. (BT)Did he sing Hollywood nights?  An incredibly handsome young man, square jawed defo American. Actor. He’s cleaning tables waiting to be discovered.  Been known to sing hits from the musicals in the kitchen when they are quiet. The other girl didn’t agree, thought he sounded more like a naturalist. Thought he would spend his time elbow deep in rhino dung while whispering at the camera so as not to disturb his subjects.Verdict- Johnny Depp lookalike - he can be in the film with Yrsa. Looking at strange dung on the meteor and save the planet too. And the rhino’s.                                                                                              CUTE!!!
Michael Sears; Has loads of money. Old money.  ‘Mickey’ Sears has money but is younger. Both wear handmade shoes. Very tastefully cut suits. Cufflinks. He’d take you out and treat you to a nice dinner. He knows how to use cutlery.  He’ll have his own jet (a Sears jet no doubt). Nothing flashy about him, all very understated money. Both my pals would like to meet ‘Michael’. BT is already googling him on her phone.Verdict- A bit like the Ewings of Dallas but smaller shoulder pads.
                                                                          The Sears Family annual lapel competition Cara Black - Exotic dancer. Must be.  Something fiery about her.  Or a romantic heroine who struts around in a crinoline getting stroppy. She will have a Spanish or Latin American father.  Or might be a very beautiful gypsy girl who looks after the horses. She will enchant the landowner and marry him against all odds. ( She reads Mills and Boon I think!)Verdict- Catherine Zeta Jones in Zorro?
                                                                          The chin hold. Three submissions or a knock out.
                              


No comebacks!  Remember I might come and steal your sheep…


"Caro Ramsay"  07 03 2014 GB

The Island that won a gold medal.

Here's blog I wrote for Murder is Everywhere. As far as I am aware there has been no murders on Ailsa Craig but it's an interesting little island.  Lisa Brackmann, American Crime Writer was at Sochi and was watching the curling. She was asking me what it was the British Team were singing.
Some thing about 'We are on the road....' then ending the line with a Toot Toot.   A polite version of She'll be coming round the mountains???
Anybody know.....


So here is a question, what links this lady aged 23                           
                                 This gentleman aged 35                                  And this island aged 65 000 000 years?                                  
The island is Ailsa Craig, from the Gaelic for the fairy island. It lies 10 miles from the mainland in the outer part of the Firth of Clyde and sits like a wee tumshie bunnet on the horizon. Or a cupcake. Or a tea cosy.  Or a Tunnock's Tea Cake. Or a fresh from the oven blueberry cake.
The lovely photos here are from the Maybole.org web site.



It is an island with moods.

‘The Craig’ sneaks into the background (photobombs?) on millions of photographs of Scottish holiday makers as they get hypothermia spending the summer holidays down the west coast.  Most of the Turnberry Golf Course has a great view of it, the best from the 2nd green I am informed by gentlemen in strange trousers (golfers). Any room in the hotel with an island view costs a fortune.
                                      Daily Mail

It’s the sort of island that makes you smile, covered in sea mist, poking out the sunshine, glistening in the water. It's a happy wee place.
It’s other name is Paddy’s milestone, being half way as the crow flies between Glasgow and Belfast and that was a traditional voyage for Irish immigrants seeking work in Glasgow. Or maybe it's called that because it was a haven for Catholics during the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century. In 1597 a kind gentlemen called Hugh Barclay used the island to provide food and shelter for a Spanish invasion which might have helped re-instate the Catholic faith in Scotland. It didn’t work and Hugh drowned trying to escape the Protestant Rev Andrew Knox. In between times the island got a bit swashbuckley with pirates and parrots and peg legs ready to sail out and steal the booty of boats going up and down the Clyde.Later the island was used as a prison and then the famous lighthouse was built by the famous Thomas Stevenson. I think he had a famous son. Robert Louis ….

                                 

I am lucky enough to have been on the island. Sea bird city. It’s heaven for birds, not so good for human beings. It has a small bay, one windy path up to the top, no where to sit down at the top to admire the view ( or hold on as it is so windy).  There is a small bay with a few buildings (ruined),  two huge foghorns and a strange wee railway track that goes from nowhere to nowhere. Intriguing.

                                   

The best way to see the place is to take the boat round it;  40000 breeding pairs of gannets, puffins, kittiwakes,  black guillemots, razorbills, herring gulls, peregrines and a special line in cheeky seals who twiddle their moustaches while bobbing around on the waves.
                                  
The back end of the island has incredibly steep cliff like slopes and this was the challenging inspiration for a bunch of drunk blokes to carry up a snooker table and play a few frames in their pants. (Underpants I mean, not American pants)It is two miles in circumference, about 1100 feet high. The 200 acres is a plug from an extinct volcano left sticking up after the softer rock of the volcano itself was worn away.  The island has a fresh water spring but no other mod cons.  The owner, the 8th Marquis of Ailsa put it up for sale in May 2011  for  £2,500,000 but dropped that price by a million two years later. I believe, and hope, it has been bought by a wildlife trust. The RSPB has a lease on it that runs out in 2050.The fact that the island went up for sale refuelled the land reform debate. 50% of Scotland is owned by less than 500 individuals ( from illegal gain during the reformation) and has been passed down through the family ever since. I recall having  a chat with a chap at a posh publishing dinner in London. He told me proudly that his family owned a large chunk of the west coast. He then added, even more proudly that he had never visited Scotland (weather was too bad), never mind the bit his family owned. You can insert here any mode of death I might have thought appropriate. 

Indeed the Craig itself has only changed hands once in 600 years but at least the Marquis used to pop over for the  odd BBQ.

                                  
 The puffins were nearly driven off the island by the introduction of rats ( they eat the eggs of ground nesting birds)  but widespread use of warfarin has dealt with the rat problem so the puffins are back in droves. There used to be an annual gannet hunt – gannet being considered a delicacy in those days and the uncle of one Robert Burns was involved in the hunting and trading of gannet. Hardly surprising as all this takes place in the Ayrshire coast, Burns country and all that.
So what has all this got to do with the two sporty types above. Well 70% of the curling stones on the face of the planet come from Ailsa Craig. The granite of the island has ‘an unusual crystalline composition’ which gives a uniform hardness. From the 1850’s the island has been quarried for its  riebeckite. Most other stones come from the  Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales.

                                

Blasting is not allowed on the Craig any more but  loose rocks are still used by the Kays of Scotland company. They had their first wee  harvest of loose stones in 11 years in 2013 and got 2000 tonnes. That is enough to fulfil all orders until 2020… after all, they don’t wear out and you can’t break them. The Blue Hone stone from the island has very low water absorption so ice does not erode the stone, and the other type of stone produced is  called Ailsa Craig Common Green, which is of slightly lesser quality.

                                    The stones from this island won the gold medal for Rona Martin and her team in 2002,  and  helped Eve and Dave  and the curling squad to their  medals in Sochi. There is one curling rink in England, one in Wales and three within twenty minutes of my house.
                              So the link is curling stones!

Caro Ramsay  GB  28/02/2014

Help a Child With Cancer

I am  happy to be helping the charity Clic sargent  to raise funds for  children  suffering from cancer. It's good to be able to lend a helping hand, it might just make a little person's day a wee bit better.
And you can have some fun. Nice folk bid to name a character in a book after somebody they like. Normal folk bid much more money to name a character in a book after somebody they don't like, and ask them to get bumped off - fictionally.  Just think of the fun you could have with that old maths teacher who forced you to write quadratic equations  on the board - or the English teacher who made you recite the quality of mercy is not strained as they showed no mercy at all. Don't start me on gym teachers...Somebody who will remain anon but is a very famous and respected expert in his field wanted his mother in law written into a book - as a crack addict prostitute who was found dead in a dumpster....
Have a look yourself... the web page is now live at http://www.clicsargent.org.uk/getincharacterAnd the auction will be live at 8pm on the 27th Feb for 10 days. Here are the writers taking part,  I feel that Jane Bidder might have an unfair advantage....Emily BarrJane BidderAlison BruceBelinda BauerJulie CohenCharles CummingKate EllisClaire DyerJulie FarrellJemma ForteKate FurnivallJane GreenElly GriffithsEmylia HallGraham HurleyShaun HutsonLisa JewellAmanda JenningsSusan LewisColette McBethAndy McNabJean OramCaro RamseyKate RhodesJoanna TrollopeMartyn Waites

Thank you,
Caro

Bishop Of Terni Day

Happy February the 14th blog ! St Valentine’s Day! The patron saint of florists and chocolatiers. He is also the saint of love, engaged couples, young people, beekeepers, epilepsy, fainting, plague, and travellers. So if you are a young bee keeper with epilepsy and need a bouquet to hide your infected buboes  as you go on a journey to see your betrothed…. he’s your man. It all seemed to be much more fun pre Christianity when the eligible men about town would run around dressed in the skin of a (recently) dead goat, whipping the backsides of young ladies with a thong of leather dripped in goat blood. Sounds like a normal Saturday night in Sauchiehall Street to me but in those days it was all in aid of fertility. Like an early form of IVF.And in Sauchiehall Street, it still is.
In ancient Rome the 13th, 14h and 15th of February was a pagan fertility festival called Lupercalia. Lupercus being the Roman god of fertility. And that has all to do with Romulus and Remus and having a wolf for your mother and other stuff Freud would have a field day with. I don’t think it too much of a stretch of the imagination to suggest that pope Galasius, being a good Christian, might have frowned on all this happiness and frolicking but was also very aware that the one way to encourage bad behaviour is to ban it.
 So he simply absorbed it into the Christian calendar, much to the relief of greeting card companies all over the globe. The 14th of February has remained a celebration of love, but the fun aspect of being spanked on the backside by a drunk with a whip while running through the street has evolved somewhat. It was thought that a blow from the whip (a februa) encouraged fertility in woman. The festival was called Febraiatus, from the verb februare to purify… hence that month is called February.!!!! Hurrah!!So it was all about fertility, purity, immunity from curses, protection from bad luck and the encouragement of reproduction. No doubt there was also the sense that spring and sunshine might be on their way.The identity of the Saint Valentine (s) actually celebrated on the 14th of February is open to all kinds of conjecture but you can take your pick and mix and match from four different possibilities to suit your own taste.The one thing they have in common? They all died a brutal death…. Well who said love was good for you…
Valentine the first contender! Valentinus of Rome.In the days of Roman emperor Claudius II, only single men got drafted into the army so the clever ones got married to avoid it. Valentinus was executed on 14th Feb (conveniently) for performing marriages so that young men could avoid the draft… Just to cheer him up young lovers would visit him as he sat on death row and told him how much better love was than war. Bet that put his mind at ease!  St Valentine, the second contender.This one, Valentine of Rome was beheaded and buried on the Via Flaminina and Pope Julius 1st was supposed to have built a basilica over the grave. He was initially arrested for being Christian, and while in jail he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter, who was blind. Valentine wrote her love notes, signed from ‘your Valentine’.  This restored her sight and the jailor converted to Christianity.The date of his execution? 14th February (conveniently).   Valentine, the third contender.The Bishop of Terni, who I always think of as the front runner. Little is known of his life except that he was very amenable – dying conveniently on the 14th of February.  His relics were taken back to Terni.He was martyred in the reign of Emperor Aurelian by being imprisoned, tortured then beheaded on the Via Flaminia in Rome for his Christianity. This was by the order of a Roman called…. Placid Furius??? Who sounds so Monty Python he must be real.  Valentinus, the fourth contender.This bloke was a gnostic teacher in Rome and had nothing to do with Valentine’s Day, gnostism came to be regarded as heresy so Valentinus went out of favour slightly but he did argue that love and marriage was central to Christian belief. I think he can be disregarded as he did not have the good grace to die on the 14th of February and this shows some lack of effort on his part.

Moving forward in time, in 1382 Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about St Valentine's Day in celebration of the engagement of Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia. By Valentine’s Day he probably meant the 2nd of May which is the saint's day in the liturgical calendar of Valentine of Genoa.
A few years after that the French seem to get in on the act and on 14th February a court opened in Paris to deal with matters of love, marriage, affairs, divorces etc.  Then in 1415 after the battle of Agincourt, a Frenchman (well it would have to be!) wrote the first recovered Valentine’s note to his sweetheart.  Charles, the Duke of Orleans was being held captive at the time. And probably had nothing better to do.Two hundred years later Ophelia is harping on about Valentine’s Day to Hamlet who is out on a battlement ignoring her. This is starting to sound more familiar now.


Two hundred years later the passing of Valentine’s notes has become so common that the notes start to be mass produced in early form, a mixture of lace and paper, and we all know that this ends up with the rosy pink, satin sugar coated monstrosities with pictures of puppies with goitre that you can buy today. Nowadays Valentine’s Day is the biggest card selling/sending event after Christmas.As this blog also appears in Murder is Everywhere, it can’t really end without mentioning the Massacre. In 1929,  Al Capone  (allegedly)  ordered that  five gangster rivals  were ‘taken out’, not in the out for dinner sense, more in the line them up against a wall and shoot them sense. Somehow roaming naked through the streets drunk whipping your friends on the bum sounds so much more fun..


Caro Ramsay  14th Feb 2014

The End!! A great place to be...

It’s that funny time, that weird hiatus after pressing the most stressful button on the computer.



 New editor, new publisher, new type of book, it’s all kind of...well new! After months of scribbling and writing and stressing, suddenly…nothing.
                                                 I start to notice things; there are no clean dishes, one of children is 6 feet 2 (suddenly!), the dog is fat from  not being walked, the frosted glass in the windows turns out to be clear glass covered in cobwebs… oh and the kitchen ceiling has fallen in. I confess that I had noticed that last one but I had it on my ‘deal with it once the book is done’ list.                                                                                                                   I used to have a Barbie. I dissected her.
That list is quite extensive. It’s nearly a book on its own.So I am sailing out in new ventures and happily so.When I am editing I tend not to sleep. My brain goes into a mish mash of regurgitation,  going over difficult scenes in my head, practicing dialogue to make sure it sounds real. It can be hard to switch off,  and I need to get up in the morning for the day job. So I make a point of reading something else – usually something marvellous – but this time I picked up a ‘first novel’ from someone who is now extremely famous – a huge best selling person, multi millionaire, clean socks, good aftershave  etcAnd it was awful!Really dreadful. So bad it made me laugh out loud.The plot was James Bond meets the A Team with the cast of Emmanuel Five in supporting roles. I still can’t tell you what it was about but there was a Russian in there somewhere. It has been republished and repackaged. I found a recent  interview with him where he said that this novel was the fourth book he wrote, but the first book that was published. Then added, if you think that was bad, you should have seen the first three! .. and I would like to.  But he made the good point that all writers need to learn their craft. And now not that many get the chance.  It was interesting to see  how his talent has developed from those early days.                                              Ian Rankin was famously nearly dropped after book 4. It was book 5 that got to the top of the best sellers. My pal, nominated for a Gold Dagger, left ‘crime ‘at the end of book four to change genre completely, successfully I may add. But her crime publisher was not interested in a book five, no matter what kind of book it was.So now I am in my hiatus. I’m 60 000 words into book 6 and researching  7. But I need that wee gap in my head… and the house needs hoovered,  the dog walked, and I need to phone a roofer.  Before  that I read the responses to PD James words of wisdom for writers in Red Herrings… and thought I would add my own.                                        no not him, that's P Diddy
                                       
                                                      This is PD!

 Because I can.And I can’t be bothered phoning the builder.
                                              You must be born to write.Ms James said that you can’t teach people how to use words effectively and beautifully.  Chris Fowler said that curiosity about the world and its people shapes a writer more and I think I agree with him. Someone with a good imagination can learn the tools of the trade, learn to find their own voice and you can be the finest wordsmith in the world but you still need something interesting to say or a good story to tell. Write about what you know.Well I don’t, I’ve never murdered anybody. Pretty sure PD hasn’t either.  I make it up! Fiction is fiction. Do the research about the stuff you don’t know. As I advise my students, get it written then get it right.
                                                                                                        Angela Gils KlockeFind your own routine.Very true. Having a full time job means I  don’t have time for writers block. Or housework. If in doubt get on with it. I am a Martini writer. Anytime, anyplace, anywhere.Be aware that the business is changing.I know fellow authors  who network relentlessly and hassle editors and publicity people. One pal  got a row for stalking their publicity person by emailing her too often! I can’t be ar…d with all that.  I write, get the words on the paper and agree to any events I’m offered. I prepare myself well if I am asked to do a panel.  People get paid to chose my covers, they know about marketing so I let them get on with it. Or am I wrong?Read, write and don’t day dreamChris Fowler thinks that this is the  worst advice possible. I think they are both right. It depends on the day dream. Daydreaming in that creative space, walking the dog while working out a plot point pays dividends. The day dreaming in that fantasy space where you are being invited for coffee by George Clooney or you have woken up and are a size 10…. Maybe not so much. Then it is time to apply bum to seat, pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.                                              Enjoy your own company , again I can write anywhere, with any noise (except attack toddlers and lawn mowers, but an attack toddler under a lawn mower is fine with me). My pal is a chic lit writer and she  goes to a  five star hotel  for a week and lives on room service and champagne ( both feature heavily in her books, so it’s tax deductible)  to get the plot right. Then comes homes and writes it,  but she has lots of very small children and no lawn mower so she probably needs to!Choose a good settingI think we all in MIE know the importance of that, murder IS everywhere, thank goodness. ..Never go anywhere without a note book.I don’t ( go anywhere without one), I buy notebooks the way other women buy shoes,  friends stick ideas on ipads and other swipey screen things that bing and bong, run out of battery and break when the dog sits on it. Not so with a pen and a bit of paper. It’s so much more creative and much less like work. And you can stick the good ideas  on your forehead so you don’t forget.                                       Never talk about a book before its finished.I do, all the time. I chat to folk in my writers group,  my patients, various folk who live in my house. The dog. The latter is the best critic.Book 7 features someone in a coma.  I’ve never been in a coma thankfully  but was chatting away to a patient who told me her son in law was in a coma for  four months. She told me a lot. Stuff you don’t get from having a medical degree. One weird thing was that when he ‘woke up’ he knew what they had been talking about over his bed. Not specific memory but an osmosis of the daily detritus of the conversation.  Mainly, the stress had caused his wife to go back on the ciggies. His mum had lost lots of weight through the stress.  The cat had kittens and all found good homes. And somebody was scoffing all the polo mints. (That was the wife disguising the fact she was smoking) .Know when to stop.Maybe writers like PD don’t get a word count to  stick to but it does concentrate the mind somewhat.  My new publisher likes shorter books, so I’ve had to edit and cut and trim. I think it has worked. I hope it has.
I had ‘blog’ on my to do list, ( I have a special note book for my To Do list) I can score that off now and phone the builder. It’s going to snow tomorrow, it will snow through the hole in the roof.                                                But first I’ll take the dog out, there’s a bit of dialogue I’m struggling with where the James Bond type character has driven over an attack toddler in a lawn mower and Mr T ain’t chuffed!
                                               
Caro

Leighton Gage. A man to be remembered.

This is a post lifted from the MIE blog site, as a tribute to Leighton Gage who passed away last year.  Cara is the  blogger for Tuesdays on the site and, as you will see, she  had the same editor as Leighton , and it is that editor  who is writing this tribute. I only met Leighton once at the Bristol Crimefest and we spent much of our time telling jokes. He spoke passionately about Brazil and I spoke passionately about Scotland. We both spoke passionately about our writing. It was Leighton who set up MIE, and is therefore responsible for  me meeting crime writers that I know I will be friends with for the rest of my life.  So ta for that Leighton!  Got my copy of the ways of evil men ordered. I shall savour ever word.
Juliet Grames: On Leighton Gage, as his Editor.
Juliet Grames is Associate Publisher of Soho Press, as well as the Editor of Soho Crime of which she acquires and edits for the Soho Crime Imprint. Juliet's the editor of several MIErs, myself, Tim Hallinan, Lisa Brackman and our dear Leighton Gage. After Leighton's passing she had this to say on Soho's Blog (not to steal her thunder on the gracious post she's doing below on today, the pub date of Leighton's The Ways of Evil Men):
"Soho Press, his publisher, and his Soho Crime confederates... are bereft, both at the loss of the gentleman himself and at the reality that his last book will, indeed, be his last book. Each of Leighton’s six published novels—Blood of the Wicked, Buried Strangers, Dying Gasp, Every Bitter Thing, A Vine in the Blood, Perfect Hatred—have each been critical gems, and I am heartbroken to think that Leighton will not witness the critical reception of his forthcoming The Ways of Evil Men, which is due to be published in January 2014—I am certain it will be the warmest yet."
Welcome Juliet and thank you for joining us today on the publication of Leighton's The Ways of Evil Men - I like to think he's looking down and winking. Back at you, L xo—Cara

The week I started at Soho in 2010, the office had just received Advance Reader Copies of Every Bitter Thing, the fourth book in the Chief Inspector Mario Silva series. A then-employee handed me a copy and said, “This guy is one of the best writers I’ve ever read. Get familiar.”
So that was the book I read my first week on the job—Every Bitter Thing. I don’t want to write anything that would spoil the exquisite story, but I was deeply impressed by it—“impressed” in the original meaning of the word; it left a mark on my reading habits. Yes, the story was energetic and satisfying entertainment. But I closed the book with goose bumps. In 282 pages, Leighton Gage had tricked me into asking myself what justice actually was. I’d thought I was just getting myself into a nicely written find-the-serial-killer procedural. Instead, I was shaken to my core. I wish I could give you more specifics, but I absolutely refuse to spoil this book for anyone who hasn’t read it. (If you haven’t read Every Bitter Thing, though, seriously, go read it now; it’s still one of my favorite crime novels, even though now that I’m more widely read I realize several of Leighton’s make that cut.)
The thing is, as it turned out, each of Leighton’s books had that quality—that surprise nugget of je ne sais quoi you had never encountered before. The thing that made you stop at the end of the book and think, wow, my brain has never been down that path before. Or, wow, these weren’t feelings I had been planning on having today. I think it’s the feeling we’re all looking for when we’re reading—the feeling of having the rug yanked out from under our expectations and of finding something totally new. But I know it’s not a feeling I have very often, although I read voraciously seeking it.
And each of Leighton’s books offered a different je ne sais quoi.
I had the privilege of working with Leighton editorially on three novels: A Vine in the Blood, Perfect Hatred, and his last novel, which publishes today, The Ways of Evil Men.
About a year ago right now, Leighton and I were exchanging ideas for how we would promote The Ways of Evil Men. His earlier books had received plenty of critical acclaim, but I thought Wayswas going to be a real crowd pleaser, as well. I thought the new character of Jade Calmon was terrifically likable, the perfect access-point for introducing readers to the series. Furthermore, Leighton’s presentation the all-too-real issue at the center of the book—the covert genocides of micro-tribes—was eye-opening and would be sure to stir up conversation.
Leighton and I made plans for a dynamic pre-publication tour. It’s not something undertaken very often, but we all agreed this book was the right one to go all-out for. We made plans for Leighton to come to Chicago in the summer for the American Library Association annual convention, and brainstormed the other stops we would make along the way. It was all shaping up to be very exciting.Weeks before the conference, Leighton wrote to tell me it didn’t look like he was going to be able to make it to Chicago. I knew how much he had been looking forward to ALA in Chicago. I have to admit this was another one of those times Leighton gave me goose bumps.
ALA was still a grand success for The Ways of Evil Men, although we booth-staffers were trying to hide how subdued we felt that Leighton was not there with us. Leighton’s friend Timothy Hallinan stood at the Soho Booth for seven hours and introduced more than 800 librarians to Mario Silva. But I can’t tell you how much I wish we could go back to those collection managers next year and say, “Remember that great writer you discovered in Chicago last year? Here’s his next book, which you’ll like even better, because he’s only getting better with every book.”
It isn’t really fair to be greedy. Leighton left us with seven darkly sparkling gems of je ne sais quoi, when many authors are happy to produce just one in their whole career. And I was lucky enough to work on three of them with him. I can’t help but be greedy, though, and wish that there might have been eight, nine, ten . . .
I hope I told Leighton often enough how special I thought his work was. I mean, there is no enough, is there? I wish I had told him more often.
I hope he knew that we at Soho felt honored to have him on our list.
I hope he knew about the goose bumps.
And I wish he could see how many other people—besides his editor, who might be considered biased—are saying those same kinds of things now.

Here's post I did for MIE last week... hope you like it!&...

Here's post I did for MIE last week... hope you like it!

                                               
It’s a well known phenomenon that if America sneezes Britain catches cold. Some things that have infected us from the other side of the water are very welcome; Brad Pitt, ‘Castle’ and Robin Williams. Some not so welcome; spray on cheese, lack of the correct number of vowels in words, MacDonalds.  And the phrase ‘Trick or treat.’It’s guising!
                                                          Why is this cat so grumpy?

After wandering round a supermarket being bombarded with pumpkins, apples, peanuts all blazing with a  ‘trick or treat’ logo, I felt very nostalgic for dressing up in a sheet, making two holes for the eyes and scaring people.
                                    As a youngster we would dress up in something we had made – not bought. We liked to think we were unrecognizable.  We would go round the doors of neighbours ( with a 'u') and ‘do a turn.’ -  sing a song, tell a joke, do a dance. Wickedpedia says “In Scotland, youths went house-to-house on 31 October with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed.”This is sounding more like it!
                                    
There were some strange goings on. Treacle scones would be dangled from the ceiling on a rope and then covered in lashings of dripping sticky treacle. Some poor sod would then have their hands tied behind their back and then attempt to eat the aforesaid scone, now swinging happily on its rope. And happily smacking them in the face.  If it didn’t- if it  hung still enough to let the poor sod have a nibble, a ‘friend’ would give it a good shove…right in the face of the nibbler, rendering them a treacle face and therefore unrecognisable.                                                                                       These are sophisticates, using a newspaper as a bib. 
Small children would have to kneel on a chair, backwards (hope you are following this). Under them was a basin of water full with bobbing apples. The child would hold a fork in their teeth and drop it, trying to spear an apple. This is precision forking.                                        I believe that bobbing is world wide but we call it 'dookin'.  Kneel down and stick their head in the basin, trapping apple between teeth and basin bottom… dead easy you say. So far so good, they get an apple and might even get the treacle washed off their face.Not so easy to do while your pals are resting one foot on the back of your head.                                            I don’t recall ever having a pumpkin. We used to hollow out a turnip… and use the middle for soup. If skint we’d use a big potato. We carried the turnips and their enclosed candle through the streets keeping the ghosts away…. As the candle cast fearful shadows through the holes in the turnip, the scariest thing was the turnip itself. I wonder if there is a word for turnip phobia.                                                                                                                This is a mangel wurzel. Seemingly.
Wickedpedia says….blah blah by turnips or mangel wurzels, hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins". These were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in 19th century, known as jack – o’- lanterns.
It also says "particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers". As early as the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in the Scottish Highlands. Halloween lanterns didn’t spread to England until the 20th century, maybe due to a lack of turnips.
The term Halloween comes of course from the Scots term for All Hallows' Eve, i.e. the evening before All Hallow’s Day. Although the phrase "All Hallows'" is Old English for the mass day of all saints.  Wickedpedia again; ‘It initiates the tridiuum  Hallowmas the time in the  liturgical  year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs and all the faithful departed believers.”
Or in Glasgow, just dress up in case the ghouls get you.
Wickedpedia goes on to say that it is a Christian festival influenced by the Celtic harvest festivals and their pagan roots. Pagans would mark the end of the harvest season and beginning of the 'darker half' of the year. Spirits could more easily come into our world and were particularly active. They had to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left for the souls of the dead who were also said to revisit their homes. Places were set at the dinner table or by the fire to welcome them.It made sense, looking into a long dark winter, the good spirits had to be with you to survive. The nuts, the fruit, the fire, all that they needed to see them through and if the odd dead relative popped in that night for a wee dook of an apple,   even better.                                                                                                 pagans having fun.The lighting of bonfires by the ancient Celts was a tradition carried on into Halloween to frighten away witches but we now do that on 5th November to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night.
I didn’t know the connection between Halloween and the Danse Macabre in continental Europe, France in particular. The danse is the dead of the churchyards rising for one wild, hideous carnival at Hallowe'en.                                                                                                                       Bernt Notke: Surmatants (Totentanz) in St. Nicholas' Church, Tallinn.
Then I read this;-

 “North American almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was celebrated there. The Puritans of New England, for example, maintained strong opposition to Halloween, and it was not until the mass Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that it was brought to North America in earnest. Confined to the immigrant communities during the mid-19th century, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and by the first decade of the 20th century it was being celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial and religious backgrounds.”
Sounds like a Halloween hoolie to me!
Hope you had a good one and the ghouls didn't get you.
Caro