Stepping through a city’s chapters

What do reading, rambling and a pantomine about death have in common? They’re all taking place in Dundee later this month. Gayle Ritchie finds out more

Eddie Small is walking up Dundee’s Perth Road when he turns to me and proclaims: “This is McGonagall country”. He’s talking about the Dundee bard William McGonagall, widely hailed as the writer of the worst poetry in the English language. His audiences threw rotten fish at him, the authorities banned his performances, and he died a pauper in 1902.

“McGonagall may have been mocked, but he was an incredible journalist, telling us stories of the time,” says Eddie, a tutor and author at Dundee University.

“He thought he had a divine visitation to write poetry and, while living in abject poverty, truly considered himself a talent.”

I’m spending a morning wandering round some of Dundee’s historic landmarks with Eddie as he prepares to stage three literary-themed events on November 26 as part of Book Week Scotland.

A Reading and Rambling session will be followed by a creative writing workshop inspired by the urban walk with the aim of creating what Eddie hopes will be a “literary smorgasbord”.

The day ends with a Pantomime on Death, featuring Eddie as a member of the cast. He penned the panto himself and it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in the summer.

My session with Eddie – who boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of historical Dundee – is a taster of what folk can expect next Saturday.

It’s illuminating, fascinating, amazing and inspirational, to say the least.

The tour through the city’s west end takes in the Western Cemetery, the Wellcome building, the D’Arcy Thompson Museum, Verdant Works and more. Book enthusiasts, including Eddie, will stop at various points on the walk, reading from books that have roots in the locale or are inspired by the place.

“We’ll talk about notable people interred in the Western Cemetery and links to literature,” says Eddie.

“Places we’ll discuss include the McGonagall Bar (now Drouthy’s), Speedwell Bar, and Couttie’s Wynd, which is Dundee’s oldest street.”

As we head down Perth Road, Eddie stops opposite retro record store Groucho’s and looks up. Above a restaurant, there’s a cute pink and green building. I’ve never noticed it before and I’m impressed when Eddie tells me it was Dundee’s first photography studio, thought to date back to 1870.

The ramble will also discuss Dundee’s industrial expansion of the 19th Century, which led to it becoming known as the city of jute, jam and journalism.

And then there’s James Carmichael, who Eddie describes as being “Dundee’s number one achiever” (he invented the reversing engine for ships and the first railway in Scotland, between Dundee and Newtyle).

The lack of lavatories back in the 19th Century is another major topic.

“There were only five toilets in the city and no running water, so disease and infant mortality was rife,” says Eddie. “You’d often find cattle and sheep lying dead beside the wells.”

Passing the Mercat Cross on the Nethergate, Eddie tells an anecdote about a former provost who was forced to run naked round it because he had told lies.

And there’s a great deal of chat about boozers.

“In 1867, there were 670 licensed pubs in Dundee, and many more unlicensed ones,” he says. “The Seagate alone once had 87 pubs, two brothels and people rarely attended church.”

The tour concludes with a walk past the “cursed” corner of High Street and Reform Street, which was apparently nicknamed “duffer’s corner” because anyone who arranged to meet a date there would always be stood up.

Eddie, a lecturer in creative writing, is bursting with knowledge and enthusiasm and when the time comes to say goodbye, I’m reluctant because he has many more stories to tell.

He knows Dundee like the back of his hand, he’s full of anecdotes and walkers are promised a fascinating tour.