Stella Maris

Edinburgh is a beautiful and ancient city, with a history of culture and civilization going back a long way. It also has a dark side, and what is called the “Old Town”, the medieval closely-packed buildings running from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace, were, in my aware adolescent days, full of poor people living in tough and often primitive conditions. This gripping novel tells the tale of a child growing up there. Leith, the port of Edinburgh and proudly independent of it in culture and spirit, if not now in administrative organization, has a different dark side. Sea-ports are gateways to the world, down the motorways of the sea. Their trade thrives with a population of hard-working, and often roughly mannered people. Religion is also a strong theme in the novel, and in Edinburgh, and indeed in Scotland generally. Religion in Edinburgh is mostly refined, liberal and sophisticated, but narrow, harsh and unforgiving varieties also exist. Times have changed. The poor have been shipped out to housing schemes (colourfully described by Irvine Welsh), and the Old Town has been upgraded, gentrified, and exploited as a magnetic tourist attraction.Lives like that of Stella Maris, the star of the sea, are vividly remembered by senior citizens