Alistair Heather

May 7, 2024 | pressandjournal.co.uk | Alistair Heather

The violence in my childhood was brought back to me by the new stage version of Sunset Song. The classic Mearns novel has been adapted into a play by Elgin quine Morna Young, and is now touring Scotland. I saw it twice during its opening run at Dundee’s Rep Theatre, and it comes to His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen May 8-11, and Inverness’s Eden Court May 16-18. The play follows Chris Guthrie; a young woman growing up on a smallholding farm in fictional Kinraddie.

Apr 6, 2024 | thenational.scot | Alistair Heather

Immigration and border control signs at Edinburgh Airport on February 10, 2014 IT’S an old-fashioned place to hear about the future. The Boisdale in London’s wealthy Belgravia is all wood panelling, cigar terraces and subdued lighting. It is Caledonian-themed. Pictures of men in kilts firing rifles or standing in glens adorn the walls. The place “fulfils the wildest Jacobite fantasies with its tartan extravaganza and celebration of Scottish food and whisky…” according to one review.

Oct 28, 2023 | thenational.scot | Alistair Heather

SOMETHING’S going badly wrong in the place I’m from. “Scotland’s Birthplace” is emptying out, dying off. The latest census revealed that nearly 4000 people left my home region of Angus last year and another 1500 people died. Only 918 births were recorded. The native Angus population of my home county is absolutely plummeting. Depopulation is linked to the severe flooding which has washed Brechin up onto the UK front pages. Culture is also negatively affected when the population dies too.

Oct 26, 2023 | thecourier.co.uk | Alistair Heather

The wealthy investors’ magazine Landlord Focus has proclaimed Stobswell next up for urban gentrification. One contributor to a Dundee-themed piece licked their lips at the profits to be raked in once the Eden Project arrives. There is a fly in the landlord ointment, however. The piece quotes from many grumbling landlords who claim to be “vilified” in the press and “forced out of the market” due to the Scottish government preventing evictions or trying to cap rent increases to fair levels.

Sep 20, 2023 | thecourier.co.uk | Alistair Heather

Radio phone-in shows can fairly bring out the radges. And this week London radio station LBC received a call from an English guy who is now settled in Dundee. He claimed that daughter went to school here. However, her education was narrow and insular, he said. History was particularly grim. All she learned there was “William Wallace, Braveheart, Freedom”. I really laughed hearing that. History is my personal passion and a big part of my professional life.