From Burns to Welsh in an evening
Alastair Gilmour takes his place in one of the most unusual pub visits he has ever undertaken
Who could turn down the invitation to a pub crawl, a bit of banter and a good time?
It’s a suggestion loaded with possibilities which the Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour delivers in entertaining fashion – a witty and dramatic romp led by professional actors through the life and work of Scotland’s great poets and novelists from the early 18th century to the present day.
It starts in 1786 at The Beehive Inn in the Grassmarket with Robert Burns and Courage Directors’ Bitter before ending across the city in Rose Street and a choice of 10 real ales in the legendary left-leaning Milne’s Bar and Irvine Welsh. The legwork involved is deliberate – intended to emphasise the contrast of Edinburgh in architecture, culture and sociology – and for students of bacchanalia, the differing natures of beer.
“My name is Clart and this is my own version of history,” announces actor Paul Murray, whose job for the next two hours is to convince his audience that novelists, poets and social chroniclers were little more than drunkards and wastrels who sought inspiration in the city’s taverns and drinking dens.
Opposing his theory is McBrain (played by Dewi Wynn Jones), a wellspoken, clean-hankied intellectual who argues that literary genius descends from a much higher plane than beersoaked, whisky-stained counters.
It’s two hours of posturing, postulating, prose, poetry and pints and a brilliant way of combining a stroll, a drink and conversation with strangers. Filling knowledge gaps is an education.....
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By Alastair Gilmour
Section : Beer Journeys
Page number : 62
