Acknowledgements
They say it takes a village to raise a child. It is equally true that writing a book is a collective effort, and there are many debts of gratitude that I owe to those who have helped, in various ways, to bring this book to fruition. It goes without saying that the responsibility for any remaining errors and shortcomings is solely my own.
The seeds of my fascination with Older Scots literature were sown by my undergraduate tutor, Sally Mapstone, and potted on by my PhD supervisor, Anke Bernau, whose own interests in memory informed my own. I am thankful to these extraordinary women for their inspiration.
Elements of certain chapters have appeared in earlier incarnations; I would like to thank Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge and Cambridge Scholars Publishing for their permission to include them here. Thanks also to the National Library of Scotland, the Parker Library, University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections for access to their collections and permission to reproduce images. I am grateful for the financial assistance provided by the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh for being able to include images. I would like to acknowledge colleagues at Nottingham and Bristol for their encouragement and friendship, especially during the seemingly never-ending tranche of fixed-term contracts. This book was completed at the University of Edinburgh and I am thankful to my colleagues there who have welcomed me and supported this book over the finishing line.
I am fortunate to have been advised and assisted during the writing of this book by numerous colleagues and academic friends; I am grateful to them for sharing their time and knowledge, for their reading of draft chapters, engaging conversations and suggestions for avenues of research. Particular thanks must go to Steve Boardman, Michael Brown, Mark Bruce, Ardis Butterfield, Dermot Cavanagh, Sarah Dunnigan, Elizabeth Ewan, R. James Goldstein, Janet Hadley Williams, Cathy Hume, Robert Irvine, Alasdair MacDonald, Ainsley McIntosh, Gerry McKeever, Pam Lock, Joanna Martin, Roger Mason, David Matthews, Gale Owen-Crocker, David Parkinson, John-Mark Philo, Ros Powell, Rhiannon Purdie, Will Rossiter, Katherine Terrell, Sebastiaan Verweij, Greg Walker, Alice Wickenden and Emily Wingfield.
To Elizabeth Elliott and Lucy Hinnie: thank you for your boundless generosity, insight and friendship. I am a better scholar because of you. To Jenni Hyde, for the breakfast walks and ballad discussions. John McGavin graciously encouraged my work when I was a timid PhD student at her first ‘big’ conference. I still keep the e-mail as a pep talk and it has been re-read many times during writing this book. I will be forever thankful for the personal and professional friendship shown to me by Nicola Royan, without whose encouragement and guidance I would not still be in academia. Caroline Palmer has been more patient with this book than either of us would care to admit. I offer my thanks to her and the rest of the team at Boydell & Brewer. I am also grateful to my anonymous readers for insightful comments and suggestions.
Thanks to family and friends, who have offered hospitality, childcare and much-needed distraction at the most perfect of times. To Damian, who has been dragged round far too many medieval monuments and listened to more ramblings about medieval Scotland than he would ever have wished for, my deepest appreciation and love. None of this would be possible without you. To Éilis, who makes everything, every day, worthwhile.
It is customary to dedicate first publications to parents. I am indebted to my own, Michael and Sylvia, as well as my sister Connie; without their love, support and encouragement, I would never have made it to university, let alone written a book. I am, however, going to break with tradition and dedicate this book to those who did not get to see its completion: my grandparents, James and Julia Harding, whose retellings of their own histories delighted me as a child; and my parents-in-law, José (Pepe) and Patricia Irisarri, who are remembered always. Requiem in pace.