A private house, not a museum: visiting the Edinburgh home of Robert Louis Stevenson

‘This is a private house …’ says a small but noticeable addition to the doorbell of 17 Heriot Row in Edinburgh, the home for many years of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, his parents and their small entourage of servants. Thanks to the hospitality of current resident John Mcfie and his family, a private house, albeit a very special one, is what I was privileged to see last weekend at an event organised by the Robert Louis Stevenson Club.

When I joined the club a year or more ago, I knew it...