Duncan Harley

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 ‘sever...

That’s a good few more limited-edition signed copies of my best-selling tome delivered to a well-known specialist whisky shop in Inverurie and my tiny hand is aching from the holding of the pen. As I have no doubt said before, ‘The A-Z of Curious Aberdeenshire’ sits well with a dram and perhaps – dare I say it – a Cuban cigar. I was pleased to learn that a copy of my book is to accompany a hamper-full of locally produced Aberdeenshire products to a charity event where hopefully it will raise a few pounds for the relief of hardship in our green and beautiful land. Yes surprisingly, despite the boom and bust of oil and the incessant flood of capital into Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, there are still poor pockets of folk all around. Charity shops abound on the High Street alongside the inevitable bookies and, somewhat shamefully, food-banks inhabit the lanes and side streets. And this in the so-called ‘oil capital of Europe’. The situation if of course nothing new and I well recall app...