A Deliveroo @ Inverurie


It’s been an interesting day. Up at seven, AM that is, in Garthdee to take breakfast – a boiled egg, some buttered toast and some very black coffee - then off to Inverurie to pen last night’s theatre review. HMT, for their sins, hosted Hosseini’s The Kite Runner last night – it plays until Saturday next and is a splendid performance by some splendid actors in a splendid setting. The review, for Aberdeen Voice, begins:

“The brutal rape of young Hassan by sociopath Assef and his cohorts sets the tone of this touring stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel. And the child-rape not the only gut-wrenching scene from the book to be splashed all over the stage in front of the theatre audience. An execution by the Taliban, a bone-crunching beating or two and tales of death by landmine are intermingled with implicit references to paedophile driven child abduction and the stoning of adulterers … “

The local daily was much more subdued, referring only to some ‘severe adult themes’.

There followed a Deliveroo of some signed books to Inverurie Whisky Shop – my local distributor – and then a collection of some other folk’s books from the local library. Most of the collected books concern Lord Cullen's report into the Piper Alpha tragedy and the aftermath but one at least features tales of early flying in the North-east by none other than aviation pioneer Eric Gandar. I shall have to read all 16 tomes in the hope that a tale or two for the next book emerges from the carnage. And I expect that some will.
Then I did an author’s lunch of beans on toast, bought some cat-food and did my weekly visit to my old-pal Smoky Joe.
Tomorrow, and probably on Friday as well, I shall concentrate on my next book about the North-east. After all, the stories are flooding in thick and fast and there is a Royal wedding on the horizon.

Duncan Harley is the author of ‘The A-Z of Curious Aberdeenshire’.
His next book ‘The Little History of Aberdeenshire’ will be published in early April 2019.



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