Today's arrivals while I slept

From our local bookshop, and a rare books seller in East Lothian.

I already have a fuller more original Scots play script for the 16th century play. But hoped that the slightly modernised/simplified version might be more suitable for my needs (including IF game design ...). Martin borrowed it for me from the uni library last week, and after a quick peek to be sure it was what I needed I could then confidently buy my own copy for longer-term use.

I love the Alice books. And collect playing cards. This is a new (last week) release of this deck. Plus a bonus fun book. We couldn't pick them up in person from the local bookshop on Friday - they needed to be ordered in. So I got them delivered, and they arrived in the post today.

Publication proofs

Lovely is waking to proofs of the next "Miscellany" volume from the Scottish History Society, including my own piece - full annotated transcript plus accompanying essay - about a historical poem about events at the Melrose court in 1682. Very much looking forward to seeing the finished volume in print.

I studied the Melrose local court records for the dissertation portion of my taught MPhil history degree at Dundee, 2001-3. I only discovered this poem lurking hidden in the depths of the Edinburgh national archives afterwards. And was rather stunned, because it correlates closely with the history as recorded conventionally, while providing a totally fresh take on it. All including a vitriolic character assassination of the newly appointed judge! It took me ages to transcribe the 17th century handwriting - definitely at my limits. But got there, and then ended up sending in a proposal for an edited transcript + essay for the Scottish History Society. Which was accepted. That was 6+ years ago. It's taken a long time to get to print. But nearly there now!