Andrew Greig
Author of That Summer
About the Author
Works by Andrew Greig
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1951-09-23
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- Orkney, Scotland, UK
South Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK - Education
- University of Edinburgh
- Relationships
- Glaister, Lesley (wife)
- Awards and honors
- Eric Gregory Award (1972)
Members
Reviews
Kingdoms Of Experience: Everest, the Unclimbed Ridge by Andrew Greig
An account of an attempt to summit Everest from the Northeast, which hadn't been done at the time. Greig does a good job of showing the misery of making such a climb, and how it feels to be there, what you do, how people get along, etc. I read the Kindle version, which suffers from the typical Kindle problem of poor illustrations and renderings of things like maps, which would have been essential for this book. Still, you do get a real sense of the place and the travails of living there.
This is an intriguing historical novel about Scotland in the age of reform; a time of frenetic plotting, civil grievance and religious wars, all complicated further by the Scottish line of succession to the English throne in James VI and I. The first person author (for those of us less familiar with early Scottish literature) is the writer William Fowler, who tells of life at St Andrew's University and in Edinburgh at this febrile time. Politicking and religion sit alongside stories of love, infatuation and hero worship. The titular character, Rose, is a woman with ideas above her fishwoman status, but without the means to realise them, with the title but not the opportunity to be the heroine of her own story. The book is liberally sprinkled with Scots words, but is written in a plain and accessible style.… (more)
A fictional retelling of the early life of the sixteenth-century makar and courtier William Fowler, from his university days at St Andrews to his early embroilments in Scottish politics. The strength of Andrew Greig's novel is his sense of place. I've been to a number of the places in which this book is set, and through Greig's prose I felt I was walking those streets and shores again. But while Rose Nicolson is an enjoyable adventure yarn and an amiable read, it never really took off for me. Greig sticks fairly closely to the actual events of history, which makes for a fitful and lumpy plot by times (real life of course not tending to fit satisfying narrative arcs), and he doesn't seem to have been interested in doing anything different with how he tells his story. The eponymous love interest of the title also failed to convince as a person. She's bright and spirited, Not Like the Other Girls/Townsfolk, and ultimately a thing to be longed for rather than someone who has any narrative agency in her own right.… (more)
Coincidentally this takes place in the Scottish English border, the same region the last book (Eagle of the Ninth) was set, but like 1500 years later. (120 CC / 1600 CE). Book was ok, I was confused a lot of the time but the intrigues and characters, who was whom, I dunno. Good history, uninspiring execution.
Lists
THE WAR ROOM (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 26
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 968
- Popularity
- #26,597
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 48
- ISBNs
- 94
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 5