Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
David Campbell was born in Edinburgh and spent his childhood in the story-and song-rich North-East of Scotland where he acquired a lifelong passion for poetry and the power of the spoken word. He then worked with BBC Radio Scotland for many years devising, scripting and directing a wide variety of radio programmes. He has also reviewed books and drama extensively in the Scottish press and has published poems and short stories in Scottish literary magazines. He is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s finest storytellers as a popular ambassador of Scottish lore and literature, he has toured worldwide with his repertoire of talks and stories.
<p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>David Campbell opens the door to a world crammed with anecdotes, folklore and memories. </i><b>SCOTS MAGAZINE </b></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>The second part of A Traveller in Two Worlds, this book completes David Campbell's life of a man who loved a good story more than life itself, and who always told it from the heart. </i><b>EDINBURGH LIFE</b></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>This second volume, candid and touching, the best kind of memoir.. </i><b>SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY</b></p>
The Tinker and the Student is the second volume of David Campbell’s biography of acclaimed Scottish storyteller Duncan Williamson. This volume chronicles Williamson’s life from the time he met his second wife, the young American student Linda Jane Headlee, until his death in November 2007. Campbell recounts how Linda played a pivotal role in bringing Williamson’s stories out of the travelling world to the wider community, and in doing so shows the impact that Williamson made on the lives of the people he came into contact with.
Acknowledgements 9
Preface 11
chapter 1 The Fallow Years 13
chapter 2 The Folk Revival 28
chapter 3 The Student 34
chapter 4 The Tinker’s Tale 56
chapter 5 Fairyland with the Fairy Queen 76
chapter 6 Happy Days 87
chapter 7 Out of the Blue Again 97
chapter 8 Wheel of Fortune 110
chapter 9 Wounds 128
chapter 10 Into the Wider World 132
chapter 11 Survival Arts 139
chapter 12 Death 153
chapter 13 The Cairn of Stories 162
chapter 14 Moving On 173
The Tinker and the Student is the second volume of David Campbell’s biography of acclaimed Scottish storyteller Duncan Williamson. This volume chronicles Williamson’s life from the time he met his second wife, the young American student Linda Jane Headlee, until his death in November 2007. Campbell recounts how Linda played a pivotal role in bringing Williamson’s stories out of the travelling world to the wider community, and in doing so shows the impact that Williamson made on the lives of the people he came into contact with.
In this second of two volumes I try to fulfil my promise to Duncan to tell the stories of his life. In bringing the work together I made tape recorded conversations with Duncan over ten years and interviewed many of his family, friends and admirers. The first volume of A Traveller in Two Worlds tells the story of the tinker/traveller Duncan Williamson’s colourful and eventful early life alongside my own twenty years of fun, topsy turvy companionship and travels with this charismatic friend. That book concludes with the death, aged thirty-nine of his wife, Jeannie with whom he had seven children. Of these, the three oldest boys Jimmy, Willie and John still lived with Duncan in the travellers’ tent. The two youngest, Sandra aged three and Isabella aged one had been adopted by Duncan’s childless brother Jimmy and his wife Edith.
In the first volume Duncan’s life is largely in the world of the traveller. In this he progressively becomes part of the non-traveller community in his own idiosyncratic way and becomes a world renowned storyteller and ‘character’.
The title The Tinker and the Student was Duncan’s own suggestion. Since its core and heart are the consequences of Duncan’s meeting with, and marriage to, the young American research student Linda Jane Headlee, it is as much her story as his. She was and is his Pygmalion who brought him to life in another world and at the time of writing is still publishing and telling his stories and giving his voice breath. With both of these luminous people I lived closely for many years, each as remarkable as the other, both with huge talent and strident wills that made an incendiary and creative flame. The glow of that flame still warms the hearth of Scottish Storytelling and sends sparks far beyond.
The Tinker and the Student concludes with Duncan’s death in 2007 and the effects of these sparks into this ‘beyond’.
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
David Campbell was born in Edinburgh and spent his childhood in the story-and song-rich North-East of Scotland where he acquired a lifelong passion for poetry and the power of the spoken word. He then worked with BBC Radio Scotland for many years devising, scripting and directing a wide variety of radio programmes. He has also reviewed books and drama extensively in the Scottish press and has published poems and short stories in Scottish literary magazines. He is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s finest storytellers as a popular ambassador of Scottish lore and literature, he has toured worldwide with his repertoire of talks and stories.