St Andrews in Literature

[Bizarre Atheist]

Quoting beeny from 19:42, 5th Jun 2008

Quoting James01 from 14:32, 5th Jun 2008
I wrote a story/script with St Andrews in it, and better still, it had a bop scene! (If you went to Halfcut 08, you'll know what i'm talking about.

I really think we were meaning more famous authors.... Though I didn't attend Halfcut, or any student run film festival full of over-budding egos, I could probably safely assume that most student filmmakers would set scenes within the environment most natural to them.

[hr]

'But what do I know? I'm a bear; I suck the heads off fish.'

This post is set in St Andrews.

[hr]

[Frank]

I distinctly remember a line in Brave New World suggesting the characters set off to St Andrews for a round of electromagnetic golf...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."
Also, some years later:
"here we are arguing about a few uppity troublemakers with a bee in their bonnet and a conspiracy theory."

[James01]

Quoting Bizarre Atheist from 20:39, 5th Jun 2008

Quoting beeny from 19:42, 5th Jun 2008

Quoting James01 from 14:32, 5th Jun 2008
I wrote a story/script with St Andrews in it, and better still, it had a bop scene! (If you went to Halfcut 08, you'll know what i'm talking about.

I really think we were meaning more famous authors.... Though I didn't attend Halfcut, or any student run film festival full of over-budding egos, I could probably safely assume that most student filmmakers would set scenes within the environment most natural to them.

[hr]

'But what do I know? I'm a bear; I suck the heads off fish.'

This post is set in St Andrews.

[hr]

I loled! I don't have an ego btw, I was just making a joke that I had a bop scene in my piece!

[novium]

I usually can't read books set in places I am particularly familiar with, it's too distracting. It keeps knocking me out of the story. The most jarring time was once when I was at home and driving somewhere. I was listening to a book on tape, and the main character ended up going to the same place I was, from the same place I was. What was hugely disorienting was when she describes driving in the completely wrong direction, meanwhile, going past landmarks of the road I was on, but also landmarks of a road that she could not possibly be on. It took my brain a few seconds to sort that out though, and for the briefest bit of time, i had the strange feeling that the route I was going wasn't familiar, but just deja vu, and that I was going the complete wrong way.

Quoting Orcas from 18:45, 5th Jun 2008
Banquet for the Dammed. Reading it at the moment, not really my type of book, but not too bad. Funny reading about a place that you know well though.

[hr]

Neither the storms of crisis, nor the breezes of ambition could ever divert him, either by hope or by fear, from the course that he had chosen

[Lindsay]

The James V trilogy by Nigel Tranter feature St Andrews Heavily (The Riven Realm, James: by the Grace of God and Rough Wooing).

[hr]

[BasilSeal]

From the NYC St Andrews alumni listerv:

Hi everyone -

Following is a press release for Adam L.G. Nevill's upcoming supernatural thriller, 'Banquet for the Damned', which is set in St Andrews. Thought I'd pass it along for those who might be interested. I, for one, am looking forward to it - and it comes out just in time for my return visit to St Andrews later this summer. He tells me Deans Court makes an appearance in the story...

Hope this finds everyone well!


Banquet for the Damned

Adam L GNevill

VirginBooks 5th June 2008 £7.99 Paperback, ISBN 978 0 7535 1358 3

When students suffering from horrific dreams mysteriously vanish fromtheir beds and body parts wash ashore, it seems an ancient darkness has stirredonce more in Scotland’soldest university town. Some suspect a professor of divinity’s meddlingwith the occult has unleashed a horror, banished by religious fire centuriesbefore. Something eager to return and take a bloody revenge. In this chilling occult thriller, a pair of unlikely heroes - arootless musician and an American explorer - must find the courage to acceptthe impossible and do the unthinkable to prevent a demonic force from unleashingits dreadful rage upon humanity. Combining elements of classic horror films such as The Omen and The Wicker Man, and paying homage to the great age ofBritish ghost stories, this occult thriller offers old school chills and a pacymodern tale of diabolism and witchcraft. About the Author Adam L G Nevill has a MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of St Andrews and has been a devotee of thesupernatural in fiction since his father read him M R James at bedtime. He isthe author of another nine novels written under a pseudonym. He currently worksin publishing, lives in Londonand is available for interview. A website to coincide with publication can befound at: www.adamlgnevill.com Virgin Books
Thames Wharf Studios
Rainville Road
London
W6 9HA

[novium]

I saw it in the bookshop the other day. It sounds like it'd be the sort of thing I'd enjoy reading... but I don't think I would, given the st andrews setting. I flipped through it a bit, and I think I realized the main problem is that I wouldn't be able to suspend my disbelief. It's hard to read a description about fife park and the students, and then also a description that implies st andrews is a center of paranormal activity, and take it seriously enough to get sucked into the story.

If it weren't a place I knew so well...

[hr]

Neither the storms of crisis, nor the breezes of ambition could ever divert him, either by hope or by fear, from the course that he had chosen

[Guest]

Quoting James01 from 23:00, 5th Jun 2008
I loled! I don't have an ego btw, I was just making a joke that I had a bop scene in my piece!

"Don't have an ego"? You? Are you serious? Dear sweet Jesus.

[M]

I know this isn't set in St. Andrews but I went back to my old school library to see if they still had my favrite book from when I was a kid, "Man after Man," and low and behold it was written by a St. Andrews graduate.
It weirded me out.

[M]

Quoting novium from 22:52, 24th Jun 2008
I saw it in the bookshop the other day. It sounds like it'd be the sort of thing I'd enjoy reading... but I don't think I would, given the st andrews setting. I flipped through it a bit, and I think I realized the main problem is that I wouldn't be able to suspend my disbelief. It's hard to read a description about fife park and the students, and then also a description that implies st andrews is a center of paranormal activity, and take it seriously enough to get sucked into the story.

If it weren't a place I knew so well...

[hr]

Neither the storms of crisis, nor the breezes of ambition could ever divert him, either by hope or by fear, from the course that he had chosen

St. Andrews not a place of paranormal activity? Wow, I get that impresion all the time. I allways thought that mabey if I walked through that little gate/door fenced off in the middle of St. Maries quad I would end up some where else ... like a secret garden or a parralel dimension
(well I never actualy thought that but if this town was a movie or their was actualy such a thing as paranormal activity that is totaly what would happen.)

[immunodiffusion]

The Citadel by A.J. Cronin (1937) is about a doctor who graduated from St Andrews immediately before the narrative starts. However, St Andrews is not heavily featured in the novel.

[Midget]

I could be wrong, but in the pursuit of his creation doesn't Doctor Frankenstein visit St Andrews, he definitely goes to Scotland and around about.

Yes Chapter 19, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

http://www.boutell.com/frankenstein/chapter19.html

Has noone who did EN1002 (?) mentioned this yet.

[Ragamuffin_artist]

Fox's Book of Martyrs (1563) features a comparatively lengthy chapter on the gruesome bits of St. Andrews' history. Fascinating reading, regardless of one's religious convictions.

[Jos Dad]

Jo's favourite book when she was about seven was "Last Term at Mallory Towers" by Enid Blyton. It finishes with the heroine preparing to go to St Andrews University.

[Bizarre Atheist]

Quoting Midget from 13:15, 2nd Jul 2008
I could be wrong, but in the pursuit of his creation doesn't Doctor Frankenstein visit St Andrews, he definitely goes to Scotland and around about.

Yes Chapter 19, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

http://www.boutell.com/frankenstein/chapter19.html

Has noone who did EN1002 (?) mentioned this yet.

We left Edinburgh in a week, passing through Coupar, St. Andrew's, and along the banks of the Tay, to Perth, where our friend expected us.

Barely noteworthy, I'd venture.

[hr]

[Midget]

Yes, but it's a somewhat more impressive work of fiction to feature in than an Enid Blyton.

[Guest]

The Book of St Andrews
Robert Crawford
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-St-Andrews ... 904598501/
An anthology of literature, short stories and essays relating to St Andrews

[thisgirl31]

I've read Banquet for the Damned, and it's thoroughly disconcerting reading about a place that we all know so well. Apart from picking up on the occaional typo {David Melville Hall, anyone?!} and the poetic licence in moving schools and departments across town, it just feels horrible. Maybe it's just me - but a Melville student dying in chapter 1 while a sallies girl survives in chapter 2?! Sounds very st andrews. I'm still glad i read it though, it made me realise how much I love our little town.

On another note, Waterstones sells an anthology about st andrews, with poetry, prose and some short stories.