Press release

‘Great Scott’ celebrated at Dundee event

Published on 17 September 2021

The University of Dundee’s Centre for Scottish Culture will next week host a celebration of the 250th birthday of one of Scotland’s most illustrious writers.

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The University of Dundee’s Centre for Scottish Culture will next week host a celebration of the 250th birthday of one of Scotland’s most illustrious writers.

Poetry, graphic novels and a major new book exploring the work of Sir Walter Scott will all feature at ‘Scott at 250: The Dundee Showcase’, part of a year-long programme of Scotland-wide activities marking the anniversary of the Waverley author’s birth.

The online event takes place at 7pm on Thursday 23 September and will see the launch of Walter Scott and Short Fiction, a new book by Dr Daniel Cook, a Reader in English at the University. Dr Cook will begin the evening by discussing the impact and legacy of Scott’s work in Scotland and across the world.

“Scott was an early pioneer in historical fiction, a genre that has become a staple of modern bookshops, book clubs, film and television,” he said.

“But he achieved so much more than that – he was Europe’s bestselling poet, an innovative playwright, a master of the macabre and fantastical, one of the country’s first and best short-story writers, and a champion of Scottish culture.”

The event will also introduce the audience to Five Short Stories, a collection of Scott’s shorter fiction available free online, as well as Walter Scott's Scottish Tales, a graphic novel produced by artists at Dundee Comics Creative Space. In addition, the Wyvern Poets group will be performing live readings from their latest production.

Sir Walter Scott has been hailed as the ‘Great Scott’, the man who popularised tartan, saved the Scottish banknote, rediscovered his country’s Crown Jewels and, through a string of bestselling books that dominated the 19th century, changed how the world saw Scotland and Scotland saw itself.

His legacy can still be experienced in the most extraordinary and unexpected places across Scotland, from castles to cashmere mills and from mountain tops to moments of mindfulness.  

The national 250th anniversary programme sees more than 50 cultural, arts and heritage organisations and universities mark the anniversary in different ways across Scotland and beyond.

Free tickets for ‘Scott at 250: The Dundee Showcase’ can be obtained at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/scott-at-250-the-dundee-showcase-tickets-143995814357.

Enquiries

Grant Hill

Senior Public Affairs Officer

+44 (0)1382 384768

G.Hill@dundee.ac.uk