Scottish Journeys 1933–1935

Abstract

Abstract 1933–1935. Variations on a Time Theme appears in 1934. The poet is saddened by the news that John Holms has died during a minor operation. Edwin is the Spectator’s correspondent on Scottish culture, while writing for more than five other periodicals, including the start-up European Quarterly with Janko Lavrin. Edwin and Willa attend a P.E.N. conference in Edinburgh before taking a holiday in Orkney. They are thinking of moving back to Scotland. Edwin contracts to write Scottish Journey, to join previous accounts of England and Europe as part of a series for Heinemann and Gollancz. He borrows a car and sets off on what will prove to be a cultural and psychological exploration of the state of the country. As a socialist with no time for the icons of romantic nationhood, Edwin’s conclusion is grim. Published in 1935, it is a revealing picture of economic and social decline, with the exception, perhaps, of Orkney. The chapter discusses earlier studies in Scottish identity and society, George Malcolm Thomson’s Caledonia, or The Future of the Scots (1927) and Andrew Dewar Gibb’s Scotland in Eclipse (1930). Unlike Edwin’s study, these works are conservative, anti-Catholic, and significantly tainted by the racism of anti-Irish prejudice.