David Manderson

In 1810 a literary phenomenon swept through Britain, Europe and beyond: the publication of Sir Walter Scott's epic poem The Lady of the Lake, set in the wild romantic landscape around Loch Katrine and the Trossachs. The world's first international blockbusting bestseller, in terms of sheer publishing sensation nothing like it was seen until the Harry Potter books. Exploring the potent appeal that links books, places, authors and readers, this collection of eleven essays examines tourism in the Trossachs both before and after 1810, and surveys the indigenous Gaelic culture of the area. It also considers how Sir Walter's writings responded to the landscape, history and literature of the region, and traces his impact on the tourists, authors and artists who thronged in his wake.

«This labour of love is everything a critical biography should be: informative, gossipy, admiring and more than capable of restoring Sharp’s reputation, giving him his rightful place in both Scottish literature and Scottish screen writing history. » (Carl MacDougall, writer and former President of Scottish PEN) «If Alan Sharp’s career was a unique one within modern Scottish culture, it has proved an underexplored one within modern Scottish Cultural Studies. "The Anti-hero’s Journey" remedies that collective oversight by making a compelling and critically informed case for both the individual singularity and international significance of Sharp’s creative voice.» (Jonathan Murray, Senior Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture, Edinburgh College of Art) Alan Sharp was Scotland’s greatest screenwriter and one of its most important transnational writers. The adopted son of a Greenock shipyard worker, he became a bestselling novelist, a leading playwright, a record-breaking Hollywood screenwriter and the central figure of a new Scottish national film industry. Today, however, his books, television plays and screenplays are forgotten. This study seeks to restore his work to the prominence it deserves. Including previously unknown work available only now in the Alan Sharp papers collection in the University of Dundee Archive, it traces the life’s work of a man who made a unique contribution to Scottish culture and considers his themes, especially his awareness of landscape and his use of the ambivalent male protagonist, the anti-hero. Working in exile but consistently «coming back» to his homeland, Sharp wrote from a point of view which allowed him to love Scottish culture without having to pamper it and gave him the detachment to connect it with others. «The Anti-hero’s Journey» seeks to reposition him as a vital component of Scottish cultural studies from the 1960s into the twenty-first century and proposes that he should be re-evaluated as a major contributor to contemporary transnational Scottish cultural history.

David Manderson's SCOTNOTE study guide considers the impact of Local Hero on the Scottish film industry and the rest of the world, while evaluating the film's influence on Scottish filmmakers. These notes are suitable for media studies students, senior school pupils and students of all levels.

David Manderson's SCOTNOTE study guide explores the background of the Rob Roy story, and shows how this tale has been retold as a modern film. It also examines the language of film, cinematography, sound and other elements of the film-maker's art. These notes are suitable for senior school pupils and students at all levels.