Robert Burns in Edinburgh

A reader-friendly, fully illustrated colour guide to Robert Burns' time in Edinburgh, with fresh research, maps and illustrations of the key people Burns met, with 27 relevant poems by Burns throughout.

With more than 100 illustrations by David Alexander and 80 photographs by Jerry Brannigan of key people and places Burns encountered. Includes easy to follow routes and walking guides in Edinburgh arranged by area and place/people.

Burns’ time in Edinburgh was special, and a creative period in his life.

Today Robert Burns is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and people all over the world annually celebrate Burns Night on 25 January. Famous for Auld Lang Syne, Scots Wha Hae, and A Man’s A Man for A’ That, Rabbie inspires Scots to be proud of Scotland. But when he arrived in Edinburgh in November 1786 Burns was unknown. Within days however ‘the Ploughman Poet’ was the talk of the capital, mixing in a circle of wealthy and important new friends. This was the time of the Scottish Enlightenment, a period of great intellectual and scientific achievement. Burns’ experiences during his Edinburgh stay included love affairs and fathering illegitimate children, and they influenced much of his work to come. His friendship with Agnes ‘Nancy’ McLehose led to the poem Ae Fond Kiss, among others.

To capture the events of these vital months, three Burns enthusiasts from Glasgow – Jerry Brannigan, John McShane and David Alexander – have newly researched this period in Burns’ life for this book. In the process of the research, Jerry Brannigan discovered a link to a previously unknown portrait of Burns by Alexander Nasmyth. The painting is known as ‘The Shaw Burns’, after Sir James Shaw, Lord Mayor of London in 1805, who can now be recognized as the single most important benefactor of the Burns family after the death of the poet. The story of the work’s discovery is told inside the book.

• A strong visual story with maps of Burns’ time in Edinburgh, previously largely overlooked.
• 208 pages in colour with illustrations and photographs of Edinburgh throughout.
• Easy-to-read format with maps of Edinburgh today.
• This title is published under the Waverley Books imprint but we are also listing it here.

ISBN: 9781849341714