Book benches installed in George Street’s urban garden
Top Scottish authors Ken MacLeod and Ron Butlin were the first to try out Edinburgh’s new ‘book benches’ after they were installed in George Street’s urban gardens today. Along with Lizzie MacGregor who edited Luckenbooth, an anthology of poetry, they sat and posed for photographers and film crews earlier this afternoon.
Ken MacLeod’s Night Sessions and Ron Butlin’s The Magicians of Edinburgh are among the ‘books’ used to fill the benches.
The four hand-carved sit-on sculptures, built from wooden versions of Edinburgh’s favourite books, have been commissioned and installed by the City of Edinburgh Council to commemorate the 10th anniversary year of the city’s designation as a UNESCO City of Literature.
Crafted by Peter Graham of Bespoke Design with the support of DWA Landscape Architects Ltd, the benches are intended to celebrate the Scottish Capital’s reputation as a home of great literature.
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A list of the city’s ‘top 40’ titles as compiled by the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust can be found carved into the sculptures.
Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture and Sport Convener, said: “As the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, Scotland’s Capital city is a genuine hub for all things linked to literature. These additions to the city’s streets to celebrate 10 years of this fantastic designation can only go to reinforce that status further.
“You could get lost tracing through the rows upon rows of books featured in these sculptures. Like any good bookshelf, you’re sure to find a title that suits your tastes.”
The books which are included are as follows:
Fiction
44 Scotland Street (2004) by Alexander McCall Smith
Complicity (1993) by Iain Banks
The Fanatic (2000) by James Robertson
The Game of Kings (1961) by Dorothy Dunnett
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) by Muriel Spark
Trainspotting (1993) by Irvine Welsh
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (2006) by Maggie O’Farrell
Classic Fiction
Waverley (1814) by Sir Walter Scott
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) by James Hogg
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
Noctes Ambrosianae (1820 – 1835) by John Wilson et al.
Marriage (1818) by Susan Ferrier
The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (1771) by Tobias Smollett
Non-fiction
A Treatise of Human Nature (1740) by David Hume
Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes (1878) by Robert Louis Stevenson
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Theory of the Earth (1788) by James Hutton
History of the Reformation in Scotland (1586-1587) by John Knox
Mary Queen of Scots (1969) by Antonia Fraser
The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh (1948) by Chiang Yee
Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh (1861) by James McLevy
Royal Edinburgh: Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets (1890) by Margaret Oliphant
Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals 1767-1786 by James Boswell
Poetry
Robert Fergusson Selected Poems (2007) edited by James Robertson
The Poems of Norman MacCaig (2005) edited by Ewen McCaig
The Ever Green (1724) by Allan Ramsay
The Magicians of Edinburgh(2012) by Ron Butlin
Luckenbooth: An Anthology of Edinburgh Poetry (2007) edited by Lizzie MacGregor
Crime
Body Politic (1997) by Paul Johnston
Fatal Last Words (2009) by Quintin Jardine
Black and Blue (1987) by Ian Rankin
Case Histories (2004) by Kate Atkinson
Children’s
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) by J.K. Rowling
Fleshmarket (2003) by Nicola Morgan
Maisie Comes to Morningside (1984) by Aileen Paterson
Greyfriars Bobby (1912) by Eleanor Atkinson
A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885) by Robert Louis Stevenson
Science-Fiction
The Night Sessions (2008) by Ken MacLeod
Player of Games (1989) by Iain M. Banks
Halting State (2007) Charles Stross