Vivien Devlin (Part 1)

In June, 1996, The Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour was launched and since then this two hour evening walk has entertained thousands of international visitors, students and city residents on a witty and dramatic journey through the city’s cobbled streets and old pubs, covering 300 years of Scottish writing. The success of this award winning tour has certainly been an important leading light in promoting Edinburgh as a cultural and literary city – recently honoured by Unesco with the accolade as the world’s first City of Literature to celebrate its proud tradition of writers, past and present.

Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the pub tour, its founding director Morris Paton, has created a sparkling new literary tour for summer 2006 - this time on wheels. Jump on board the vintage 1950s Mac open top Bus for an hour’s exhilarating drive around the city in the company of "Mr Reekie" (played by one of a team of first class Scottish actors) who will entertain you with stories and anecdotes. Reekie is not a tour guide, he explains, at the beginning. He knows nothing about buying tickets for the Castle but what he does know is "My Edinburgh of poets and philosophers... in the Athens of the North."

Sit upstairs if possible, for the best views of Arthur's Seat and the Scott Monument, as you are taken on a whirlwind literary journey from the enlightening times of David Hume and Robert Louis Stevenson to 21st century bestsellers, Alexander McCall Smith and JK Rowling. Writers' haunts and houses, statues, theatres, the Writers' Museum, Dynamic Earth and the Edinburgh Book Festival garden are pointed out on route (helpful to visitors) as well as a wealth of fascinating information - did you know that George Heriot's School was the inspiration behind Harry Potter's Hogwarts? We hear the gruesome tale about Burke and Hare who murdered prostitutes and beggars for £10 a body and the romantic story about Robert Burns and the love of his life, Clarissa.

Vivien Devlin (Part 2)

We pass the Oxford Bar where Ian Rankin's Detective Inspector Rebus enjoys a drink. Just as Reekie entertains us with a reading from one of Rankin’s crime novels, a police car roars past the bus, sirens wailing. Rebus perhaps on the way to a murder?

Reekie is an enthusiastic and amusing guide as he shows us around his literary city; this is the city which inspired the creation of Jekyll and Hyde, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Jean Brodie, Harry Potter, 44 Scotland Street et al. Through the lives and stories of Edinburgh's writers, their characters and a real sense of place come colourfully to life. More literary extracts would be welcome to illustrate the writers' work and music or recorded readings could be played while waiting at traffic lights (to give Reekie's voice a rest!).

But all in all, this is a thoroughly imaginative, enthralling, and often surprising bus journey and is warmly recommended for anyone who enjoys reading a good book. You are sure to rush off to Waterstone's to find a Rankin novel or Burns poetry after this tour.!

As Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Momento Mori), one of world's best writers of stories, said,"Edinburgh is a city of books and learning, open to all knowledge. The stones speak". ©Vivien Devlin, 29th June, 2006 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com (The Edinburgh Literary Bus Tour has already won a Tourism Innovation Development award from Scottish Enterprise and has been developed with Mac Tours, Lothian Buses and the City of Edinburgh Council).

Cast - Reekie is played by one of four actors on each tour.

Simon Tait
Keith Hutcheon
Paul Murray
Mark Kydd.