Fringe ephemera

It’s August and the Edinburgh festival is upon us back to its raucous self, more or less, following two years of enforced, relative quiet. 2022 is the 75th anniversary of the Edinburgh International Festival. It is also seventy-five years since eight theatre groups who were not invited to participate in the International Festival turned up […]

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Collecting the Fringe.

Edinburgh’s Festivals are drawing to a close for another year – the annual revels and mayhem, crowded streets, with entertainments of all kinds – from real theatrical efforts to someone on a pole dressed as Yoda (or it might be Dobby, nobody can be really sure) – exploding fireworks above the castle every night, and […]

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Argentina here we come!

From the moment Kenny Dalglish’s head met Martin Buchan’s cross to score the second in Scotland’s last World Cup qualifier at Anfield in October 1977 there was fervent optimism that the national team was going to do something special in the coming World Cup in Argentina.   Unremarkable results in the British Home Championship did […]

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Jim Clark

When it came to the launch of a Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2002 there could have been no more natural choice than Jim Clark – by any standard, a Scottish sporting great. Winner of a then record twenty-five Formula 1 Grand Prix, Clark was a respected international motor-racing superstar whose sheer skill meant […]

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Fanzines here, fanzines there!

While the National Library of Scotland has the privilege to collect material published in the UK free of charge, knowing of a publication’s existence is sometimes problematic. When it comes to collecting almost ephemeral material such as Scottish football fanzines the task becomes a major challenge.  In spite of this obstacle the Library has acquired […]

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