The Kings's Bride - E.T.A. Hoffmann

How do you catagorise E.T.A Hoffman? Romantic, surreal, magical realism, gothic, horror? I'm not really sure, I think he's mostly files under fiction which tells the reader nothing. Perhaps influential is the word that really sums him up - a writer who's work and imagination still permeates popular culture but there's a good chance you've never heard of (I think anyone reading this will have heard of him, but we're a select group).

The King's Bride is at the lighter end of Hoffmann's output - mostly a comedy with some excellent jokes and only a few horrifying moments. Anna is happily engaged to her neighbours son, Amandus, currently at university and fancying himself a poet whilst she remains at home and concerns herself with the kitchen garden. Her father, something of a philosopher, astronomist, and astrologer, spends his days studying the sciences from the comfort of his tower. 

One day Anna discovers a gold ring on a carrot in her garden, puts it on and finds herself engaged to Corduanspitz - a gnome, or possibly the king of carrots, which is a much worse thing to be than a gnome. Anna is at first horrified, and then reconciled as she's led to believe she will reign over the finest vegetable garden in the world, and then horrified again as she realises she's being changed into something more like her prospective husband. Will Amandus forget his poetry for long enough to save the day and his true love? Will her father maybe manage it instead? Or will Corduanspitz win out and carry Anna away, and what of his feud with the radishes?

In the spirit of any romance worth the name there's a happy outcome for Anna, and plenty of amusement for the reader - the portrait of Amandus as an undergraduate over confident in his own abilities as a poet is an absolute treat, and there's more than enough unease behind the comedy to make things interesting. 

This translation is part of Alma Classics 101 page classics series - a genius concept. It's not so much that my concentration is shot for long books (it is slightly) but that middle age has tired me out. I don't currently have the energy to read as much as I'd like to, or the time (because I fall asleep). Novellas are satisfying, they're also a fabulous way to test the waters before investing in a major work by a classic novelist, or as the season closes in on us, a really good small gift for Christmas.

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

I've been in Scotland for a couple of days seeing family which has been lovely, something we did on Tuesday was go and see The Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galasheils. I remember this project in progress (vaguely) and just as vaguely remembered that it had ended up in the Borders but had never thought to go and see it. My stepmother and father had tried a couple of times but it had always been closed - it's currently not open on Sundays or Mondays - which feels a bit odd, but very Borders - there's a few visitor attractions not open on weekends - but if ever a thing had Sunday trip out written all over it, it's surely this. The moral of this story is definitely to check opening times before setting off, which I did.

Entry is £10.50 each for adults, or £25 for a season ticket. The day ticket is for the whole day and you can come and go as much as you please in that time. Both the woman at the ticket desk and the attendant in the gallery recommended taking a break for coffee and a walk - it's good advice because there's an overwhelming amount of detail to pick through and one visit isn't enough. Taking a break and going back for a last look before car parking ran out revealed lots of things I'd missed first time around. 

The tapestry itself is a remarkable thing - about 143 metres of panels illustrating episodes from Scottish history and culture. It was finished in 2013 at the height of the referendum debate and definitely captures something of the mood and pride in that moment. The original idea came from Alexander McCall Smith,  Alistair Moffat formed the narrative it would take, and  Andrew Crummy designed the panels. Over a 1000 people were involved in the embroidering in groups the length and breadth of the country - mostly women. Each panel took around 500 hours to create. 

It's an incredible project. There are things which would not look the same if it was designed now - at least I hope the panels that touch on colonialism would be different, and that the interpretive material that goes with them would be very different, but as a reflection of how we thought even 12 years ago it's a fair representation. 

What is remarkable, and the thing I found most powerful about the tapestry was the sense of time, craft, and effort that went into making it. The makers could choose the stitches they used and there's space on each panel for personalisation. All the makers are named under each panel. It's an awe inspiring achievement, stunning bit of craft and collaboration, and a really impressive bit of art. I found it genuinely moving and at times almost overwhelmingly emotional to look at.

The Borders railway stops very close to the gallery, so it's easily accessible from Edinburgh even without a car. There's also good cheap parking. I love that this is in Galashiels where it's a centerpiece to the town and reflects back something of the area's textile history, and not just another thing to see in Edinburgh or Glasgow too. Definitely make time for this if you're anywhere in the area.