Tuesday, 2 September 2025

5 STAR Editorial Review for Tailored Truths

Hello! 

September is here already and I'm eagerly awaiting the eBook launch of Tailored Truths on the 12th September.

In the meantime, things are moving on and the paperback version of Tailored Truths is well and truly launched and available. The paperback version can also be ordered in bookstores since it's now published with Ingram Spark.








And...the reviews are trickling in already. I've noticed 3 reviews on NetGalley, and today I received the amazingly wonderful news that the Coffee Pot Book Club have issued a 5 star Editorial Review! It's humbling to read what the reviewer has picked to highlight as good points of the book. The review is a cracker and a great read on its own merit! The reviewer has 'Highly Recommended' the Novel but I, in turn, highly commend the writing of the review. It's a long one, so it's best to read from the original source but here's a taster - 

“Tailored Truths (Silver Sampler Series Book 2)” by Nancy Jardine is an enchanting masterpiece that pulls readers into its intricate narrative, making the pages seem to turn themselves in a delightful whirl of emotions. The story is written with rich, vivid details and profound emotional depth, resonating deeply within the hearts of its audience. This captivating tale leaves readers on the edge of their seats, yearning for the next instalment as they eagerly anticipate the arrival of Book 3 in this mesmerising series.

There are so many wonderful comments in the review that you can be sure I'll be mentioning them for many years to come. 

Please read the Full Review HERE

I'm off to add that lovely badge to some promotional material, my blog sidebar, and my website! 

Slainthe! 


Tuesday, 26 August 2025

Publishing Schedules are important!

 Hello again,

My last post was about my learning curve regarding creating a wrap around book cover for paperback publishing to both Amazon KDP and with Ingram Spark. I thought I was done...but I wasn't! 









It took a few uploads (Cringe,...I'm embarrassed) till I got it all correct, but my situation now is that I'm confident all is well. Though, again, that will be confirmed by new paperback proof copies when they arrive.

My second-try KDP proof copy should arrive by Friday (3 days from now) and my fingers are totally mangled by now.  

Since I added other titles to my Ingram Spark order, and since the paperback publication date I set is the 28th of August 2025 for I S, I might have to wait till next week to get those copies arriving all together.

So, for me, my planned publishing schedule for the paperback version of Tailored Truths is important. If the next stage is successful, than it means my paperback versions will still be available before the eBook launch on the12th September 2025.

I have a Craft Fair booked for Sat 13th September and my aim is to have paperback copies of Tailored Truths for sale on my table.  And I can also now stride ahead with organising book launches in some bookstores (within 100 miles).

Note to self for future paperback publishing- Don't make any mistakes in uploading! And leave at least 2-3 weeks for the processes so that the scheduling of paperback and eBook can be dovetailed! 

Marketing presents a challenge, as always. It's been some years since I did any Facebook marketing of my novels, but I'm back to learning how to upload ads to FB for my Silver Sampler Series. More time spent on tutorials, though hopefully with some future success since my sales definitely need to be improved.

Upwards and onwards...

Slainthe! 

Friday, 22 August 2025

Cover designing is tough!

 Hello again,













How can it be Friday already? This week has passed in a blur of bleerie-eyed focus on perfecting interior and cover file specifications for upload to KDP Amazon and Ingram Spark (mentioned in the last blog post). 

It took me many tries as a new cover designer to perfect the image size that Ingram Spark needed. Now I await a proof copy arriving from KDP Amazon today, and later in August one from IS.

My fingers, toes and everything else possible are crossed. 

Meanwhile, I'm creating new banners to use for promotions on Instagram, X,  and Facebook.

Have a good Friday!


Slainthe!

p.s. Reminder to self! I also need to update the banner here on my blog.

Wednesday, 20 August 2025

Nose to the grindstone with Tailored Truths!

Hello! 




Covers and Reviews!

Covers

It's been a very busy couple of weeks! I've been preparing files to publish the paperback version of Tailored Truths on KDP Amazon, and on Ingram Spark. This should, by now, be a simple process having done it for my other eleven books but, since I've not published since April/May 2024, I've had to spend time relearning techniques. The upload processes for the interior file (the story) and the cover file seems to be different every time I try it. It has meant poring over publishing guidelines to ensure any new publisher changes are met.

I've never made a wrap around cover for a paperback before so that was a huge learning curve! Who knew that my Paint Shop Pro Ultimate 2023 program could add rulers and guides to help position the spine details? I didn't, but now I can do it vertically - the horizontal ones have still to be perfected! And now preparing an image size at the outset should be easier - providing I remember how to do that! 

I'm hopeful now that the files I've produced, which have been finally accepted by Amazon and Ingram Spark for processing, will make perfect copies! Once I approve the digital copies of the IS paperbacks (KDP ones already approved) I'll still be waiting for physical proof copies to arrive by post,. I'll be a lot happier if they are perfect because it'll then be a 'Press the publish the novel' button.  Delivery of 'snail' mail can be a slow process nowadays, depending on the courier. If Royal Mail, then it's definitely slow! 

I'm hoping the paperback will be available to order by the end of August, a short time before the launch of the eBook on the 12th September 2025. Details to follow! 

Reviews

Meanwhile, the novel is already out for review in a few places, one of these being NetGalley. so if you are a reviewer for NetGalley, then why not have a go at Tailored Truths. You can find it HERE

My thanks to Lauren G for this lovely early review on NetGalley! 

“Nancy Jardine is a master of human emotion and the written word. How absolutely stunning and heartwarming.” Lauren G  **** 4 stars

Till next update...

Slainte!


Thursday, 14 August 2025

Tailored Truths is on the way!

Hello!

Cover Design created
by Nancy Jardine













It's been a while in the making but I'm over the moon to declare that Tailored Truths, Book 2 of my Silver Sampler Series, is coming very soon! It's a lovely long saga which will hopefully delight readers as much as Book 1, Novice Threads, did.

I hope you like the cover - it's my first cover design! I love it though I spent a good chunk of time in July 2025 learning some very nifty techniques to produce it. 

The eBook launches on the 12th September 2025 and the paperback is in the pipeline, too. News about the paperback launch will be coming soon, a launch event being planned in a lovely little new bookstore in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire.

If you haven't yet read Book 1, Novice Threads, you've still time before Book 2 is upon us! (click the sidebar link)

Happy Reading!

Slainthe! 

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Parade of Sail! Aberdeen Bay.

Hello again,

BAP Union -Peru












As planned, I went to the beachfront at Aberdeen to view some of the Parade of Sail which was the final spectacular event organised by the Tall Ships Race 2025. The few hours spent watching and waiting were definitely worth it.













One by one, the vessels entered into the Tall Ships Race left Aberdeen Harbour and awaited the others out in the bay. The day was cloudy but it was still easy to view the ships emerging. At this point to negotiate the narrow harbour exit, the vessels are under engine control though some of the vessels had some sails unfurled. 

Alexander von Humboldt II












I'd stupidly forgotten to charge my big camera battery (I hardly ever use it now) so I had to rely on my phone camera. And since I loaned my binoculars to my daughter ages ago, I didn't have them either. That made it difficult to identify the vessels (apart from the green hull and sails of the Alexander von Humboldt II) but I viewed a good few of the Class A and some of the Classes B,C & D. 













I think the organisers all did a fantastic job over the four day event- The Tall Ships committees; Aberdeen City Council; Aberdeenshire Council; and those other involved bodies like the transport systems and food and entertainment venues. Those involved in policing the event - security staff etc did a very good job too. Well done to ALL! 

Gulden Leeuw (?) 












I thank the ships and crews who took part, large vessels and small, it's such a great event all round.













I took the photo above on purpose to show the contrast of the old and the new! Sailing vessels of yesteryear sailing around the more recent Offshore Wind Farm vanes out in Aberdeen Bay. 



I hope I speak for all attendees though I realise that it's a difficult event for people who are disabled or find a long walk difficult. I can't see how the organisers can make attending for these people any easier but I'm sure any suggestions that can be enacted on will be considered in future.

Bon Voyage to all ships and good luck with the next leg of the race to Kristiansand. 

Slainte!

Tuesday, 22 July 2025

Welcoming Tim Walker today!

Hello!

Today I'm welcoming my author friend Tim Walker to share his recently published novella The Trials of Arthur Whitty (15th July 2025). It's a really exciting project and has the most fabulous cover, but I'll let Tim do the explaining for you regarding the intent and purpose of the novella. 


 










This novella is the story of plain old Arthur Whitty, a man whose dreams are never dull and whose vivid imagination and sense of humour carries him through a series of sometimes challenging situations. Arthur has retired to a pair of slippers and jigsaw table in a quiet cul-de-sac in Berkshire, England. He walks his dog, Max, and lets his mind wander to a series of dreams in which he is more daring, skilful and adventurous that his real-life humdrum self. He is an irritant to his orderly wife, Emilia, and has succumbed to irksome cancer treatment following a run-in with skin cancer.

Once a date has been set for corrective surgery, Arthur sets his mind on organising a real-life adventure – a bucket list trip to Machu Picchu in Peru where he finds peace and a calming of the spirit. Arthur’s bullish nature carries him through a series of situations but there is little the retired couple can do about the onset of dementia. But Arthur is well supported by Emilia and their daughter, Holly, as the family rally round to make his declining years as comfortable as possible. And there’s always escape to his secret world of risk, responsibility and danger. In his dreams, Arthur always wins.

The author has drawn on personal experience and observations of elderly men in a support group he helps run for Men’s Matters charity in Windsor, Berkshire. Half of all royalties from the sales of this book will be donated to Men’s Matters, who support older men by encouraging social interaction and connecting them to health and wellbeing support services.









Here's a bit about Tim: 

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK. Born in Hong Kong in the Sixties, he grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper. He went on to attain an honours degree in Communication Studies in South Wales before moving to London where he worked in the newspaper publishing industry for ten years.

In the mid-90s he opted to spend a couple of years doing voluntary work in Zambia through VSO, running an educational book publishing development programme. After this, he set up his own marketing and publishing business in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, then managed a mineral exploration company before returning to the UK in 2009.

His creative writing journey began in earnest in 2014, as a therapeutic activity whilst recovering from cancer treatment. In addition to short stories, he researched and wrote a five-book historical fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages. The series connects the end of Roman Britain to the story of Arthur in an imaginative narrative. It starts with Abandoned, then Ambrosius: Last of the Romans; Uther’s Destiny; Arthur Dux Bellorum and Arthur Rex Brittonum, the last two books charting the life of an imagined historical King Arthur.

More recently, he has written a dual timeline historical novel set at Hadrian’s Wall, Guardians at the Wall. His two books of short stories, Thames Valley Tales and London Tales combine contemporary and historical themes and are now available as audiobooks. Somewhere along the way, he co-authored a three-book children’s series with his daughter, Cathy, The Adventures of Charly Holmes.

Thank you for reading The Trials of Arthur Whitty. Please leave a star rating and review on Amazon and/or Goodreads so others can benefit from your experience.

Tim’s Amazon author page: www.author.to/TimWalkerWrites  

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/678710.Tim_Walker

Tim’s website: www.timwalker1666.wixsite.com/website

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/TimWalkerWrites

Instagram: www.instagram.com/timwalker1666

X (Twitter): www.twitter.com/timwalker1666

TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@timwalker804

BlueSky: www.bsky.app/profile/timwalker1666.bsky.social 

My thanks to you  for visiting today, Tim, and I wish you the best success with The Trials of Arthur Whitty. 

Slainte!

p.s. I still have your Light in the Dark Ages novels on my Kindle which may someday get a re-read, especially if I ever go back to writing set in earlier centuries though the late Roman Britain period would require a lot of new study on my part! 

Monday, 21 July 2025

Tall Ships Race 2025 in Aberdeen

Hello!

The green one- AlexanderVon Humboldt II
Bremerhaven













A long awaited weekend arrived and didn't disappoint in the least. The cloudy weather with a hint of Scottish smirr didn't dampen the enthusiasm when I had a fabulous day at Aberdeen Harbour (Scotland) to view the fifty or so tall ships berthed along the quaysides.

The city of Aberdeen was thronging with thousands of visitors to the massive event. In addition to the vessels berthed in the harbour, there were quayside concerts by famous and local bands, lots of food outlets, street entertainers wandering around and plentiful craft tents to browse their varied stock. There were paddleboarders and jet skis on the harbour waters doing stunts and entertainments. I didn't manage to video or photograph him but one of the paddleboarders was playing bagpipes! 

Dar Mlodziezy -Poland in the distance












Union Street, the main street in the city of Aberdeen, was the venue for a huge 'fleet' parade, though I didn't see that this time around. Other events were dotted around the city centre, for families and for all sorts of fun.

Bap Union- Peru












The last time I viewed the Tall Ships Race event was in 1997, an even more exciting time for me. My younger daughter won a berth on the 3-masted schooner Sir Winston Churchill (vessel now retired ). It was a UK Sail Training Association ship and she took part in one leg of the Tall Ships Race 1997. She boarded the vessel in Leith (Edinburgh) which then slowly meandered northwards and she was up on the rigging when her ship sailed into the docks at Aberdeen. It was so amazingly exciting to view the vessels, small and large, following one after another along the entry channel into Aberdeen Harbour, the channel between the quay and Torry Battery to the south of Aberdeen being narrow enough to seem like a canal. The next leg of her race that year was over to Norway.

Note: A new harbour quay in Aberdeen has slightly altered that above situation. 

In 1998, she was invited to do a return voyage, that time on the SS Malcolm Miller the sister ship to the Sir Winston Churchill and very similar. The image below is when the Tall Ships Race came to Aberdeen in 1991, an event  I also attended.



SS Malcolm Miller
Sail Training ship









The SS Malcolm Miller was replaced in 2000 and was sold to a private owner for use as a pleasure vessel. The vessel then had a turbulent time as the Helena C, was seriously damaged and then restored and her original name of Malcom Miller reinstated. It remains in private hands as a charter vessel but its importance on the Aberdeen Harbour quayside in 2025 is that the vessel was built in Aberdeen in 1967 by John Lewis & Sons. We were sad to be unable to board the Miller since those boarding were a private party of guests, though my daughter believed the schooner to be so changed in its current refit that it didn't seem anything like it was in 1998.  

Thallassa- Holland












This time around for 2025, the vessels arrived from Thursday 17th. There has to be a queuing system since once into harbour many are berthed two or three abreast since the harbour area isn't large enough for them all to be dockside.


Rigging of the Sorlandet - Norway
One of the older ships in the race













My plan is to go to Aberdeen Beach Boulevard tomorrow Tuesday 22nd July to view the 'Parade of Sail' as they leave port and muster out in Aberdeen Bay before they each get the go-ahead to begin the next part of the race- each ship given their official start time. To get the real feel of these cutters and clippers you really need to see them in full sail. It's especially impressive seeing the dark green sails of the Alexander Von Humboldt though the one in harbour today is a replacement vessel to the one I saw in 1997. 

So, till next time...

Slainte! 

See the confirmed ships who are in port for 2025 here https://www.tallshipsaberdeen.com/confirmed-ships/

Friday, 4 July 2025

Welcoming author Ali Bacon!

Hello!

I'm afraid it's been a lot longer than ' In the Blink of an Eye' since my last post here but today I'm totally delighted to welcome author Ali Bacon who has used exactly that phrase in one of her book titles. However, she's here to tell us the scenario which has also led to her latest publication 'The Absent Heart' which is exactly my kind of novel! 

Ali has been immersed in similar research to me in that our studies have included various important Scottish people of the Victorian Era like David Octavius Hill and his second wife Amelia (You'll find posts about her on this blog.) 

Every author comes to writing with their own story so here's Ali to tell us...

















What the Victorians did for me
 

Ali Bacon explains how she used family history to find her way into historical fiction

Until a few years ago I hadn’t thought much about the Victorian era except that my grandparents, born in the 1890s, lived on the very edge of it. I certainly didn’t consider writing historical fiction which, as a non-historian, I thought of as simply too much work!  

However all that changed about 10 years when I was writing a contemporary novel (A Kettle of Fish, 2012) and somehow the story of a Victorian artist and photographer got into the narrative.  I was googling art events in Edinburgh and at the time there was a major exhibition of the work of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. I decided to investigate and became quite obsessed by this body of very early photography. I got hold of a large scale study of Hill where I uncovered not just his artistic skill but also his entire life story which I found engaging, intriguing and extremely poignant.

As a result I ended up writing In the Blink of an Eye which was an imaginary account of Hill’s life seen through the women who surrounded him. At the beginning of the novel he had recently lost his wife and was caring for a 4 year old daughter.  She remained a crucial focus but I also wanted to explore the romantic implications. He was a widower; charismatic engaging and at the centre of Edinburgh society.  How come he didn’t immediately remarry as many widowers did in the Victorian era? And who in the end would become his second wife? So there is a romantic thread in the novel but it’s not a romance and many themes of love, loss and friendship are explored against the backdrop of the discovery of photography.  

I was still a very reluctant historical novelist! Researching my characters was one thing,  but then there was all the background research too and even the idea of it was overwhelming. However,  I had some family history to fall back on and the period didn’t seem too remote to be imagined. It also helped that I was writing about places I knew from my own upbringing,  Robert Adamson being a native of St Andrews where I went to university, and the Paton family with whom David Octavius Hill had a very strong friendship,  were from Dunfermline, the town where I was born. Although I haven’t lived in Scotland for quite some time it was fun to feel I was rediscovering my own Victorian roots. Another consideration was the ‘voice’ I would use to conjure up that era. I didn’t want to attempt fully authentic diction (whatever that may have been) so I kept to neutral (to me) language in terms of period but falling back on voices from my youth for a more Scottish flavour.













In the end I was pleased with In the Blink of an Eye and had found it to be a rewarding experience, so I considered where I might go next with historical fiction and again family came into it in the shape of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, a more famous figure than David Octavius Hill and one about whom a great deal more has been written.  I shied away from him at first as a topic but there was a small family connection, in that one of my ancestors had actually gone to university with him so there was that feeling of familiarity and a sense in which we thought of him as one of the family. Eventually, I focused not on R.L.S. himself but on one of the women in his life, a lady called Francis Sitwell,  around whom I uncovered a web of emotional intrigue.  I brought her to life in The Absent Heart published earlier this year. Frances was trapped in a bad marriage but was also in a relationship with a well-connected scholar and critic when they both met the young  R.L.S. The novel unravels this triangle and explores the landscape of friendship, love and desire in late Victorian England. It has quite a different feel to In the Blink of an Eye as it’s set mostly in London and in a later period, but I still felt  in touch with my characters through those generational links.  It has a more conventional novel structure than Blink and readers all seem to consider it a page- turner.

I’m delighted that following publication of The Absent Heart my publishers Linen Press have decided to reissue In the Blink of an Eye with a new cover and I hope this will attract more readers to both books. I’ve just unearthed some old linen napkins, recalling how Dunfermline in the 19th century was a linen town par excellence, which makes a neat tie-in to my publisher!














More about Ali

Ali Bacon is a native Scot living in South Gloucestershire. Her writing ranges from flash fiction to full-length novels and she has recently dived into historical fiction, with her second historical novel The Absent Heart, inspired by the letters of R.L. Stevenson  published in March 2025. This follows an encounter with a Scottish artist and photographer which became In the Blink of an Eye, (Linen Press 2018), while her short story about a medieval nun, Within these Walls, was winner of the Bristol Short Story Prize, Local Writer Award in 2019. 














Find her on Facebook (AliBaconAuthor), Instagram @alibwriter and Bluesky alibacon.bsky.social
Her website is https://alibacon.com where you can also or sign up to her occasional newsletter Beyond the Book.

Buy Ali’s books:

From Linen Press
From Amazon


My thanks to Ali for visiting today with such a fascinating post.

Slainte! 

 

 

Monday, 31 March 2025

#Women's History Month is almost over! - But here's Amelia Robertson Hill

Hello again,

This is the last opportunity for me to highlight the spectacularly innovative women who have rarely gained much attention during their own time.

Amelia R. Hill CC Wikimedia Commons











I'm not writing a completely new post but I am going to mention the two women that is chose to send to my lovely friend Anna Belfrage's blog for her month-long feature for #Women's History Month 2025.

I was the first author contributor for Anna's feature which began in the 1st Century CE. I chose Queen Cartimandua, one of only two Iron Age tribal women mentioned by Cornelius Tacitus in his work about the Roman Empire invasions of Britannia. I'm not posting anything further here since I've already blogged about Cartimandua, but you can find my Cartimandua post for Anna HERE.

Ground Floor Corridor at Haddo House. 
Amelia is featured right at the end. 
Photo: Nancy Jardine with permission from the
National Trust of Scotland, Haddo House














My second appearance on the blog feature was near the end when I contributed a post for the 19th Century CE. For this I chose a Scottish sculptor named Amelia Robertson Hill. It was coincidentally during my research for Amelia Hill that I found her connection to Ishbel, Lady Aberdeen. Ishbel featured Amelia Hill in her corridor of notables in Haddo House. (see previous posts for Ishbel, Lady Aberdeen) 

The post below is a condensed version of what I posted to Anna Belfrage's feature which you can find HERE in full.

Sir David Livingstone missionary explorer
Wikimedia Commons CC 













Who was Amelia Robertson Hill and why did I choose her for a blog post? 

Since my current writing in progress is set in Victorian Scotland, I wanted to feature a noteworthy Victorian Scottish female.  My choices were plentiful, campaigners like Ishbel Aberdeen and Isabella Elder, but I noticed a tiny reference on one site which indicated that there was a female sculptor from Scotland whose work was walked past by some fifteen million people every year in Edinburgh. How could I not find out about who she was?

Emmilia McDermaid Paton (Amelia) was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, on 15th January 1821, her parents being artists who designed for the damask production in local Fife textile mills. Surviving siblings of Amelia were also artists. Her brother, Joseph Noel, born soon after Amelia in December 1821 gained a knighthood for his artistic work in painting and sculpting (Sir Joseph Paton). Waller Hugh Paton was a landscape artist. Therefore, you could say that artistic expression was in her blood. 

Amelia's younger life isn't easily accessed. She appears to have remained at home in Fife till after her mother's death and her father’s subsequent remarriage. It's not noted what she accomplished during this time, but it's assumed that she at least drew and painted, even if she didn't exhibit them anywhere. It certainly wasn't easy for a female to exhibit in any reputable site e.g. like the Royal Academy of Arts during the 1840s,  but she may have exhibited after she moved to Edinburgh to live with her younger brothers. It's also possible she had formal training with the Edinburgh sculptor William Brodie during this time. (Brodie sculpted the famed statue of the dog Greyfriars Bobby 1872). 

In 1862,  at the age of forty-one, she married David Octavius Hill, an artist friend of her brother who was some twenty years older than her. 

David Hill was a painter and pioneer photographer. He was secretary of The Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture, an institution which denied Amelia access to it -  no females allowed. However, she wasn't denied access to the company of the many upcoming, and some already famous, artists who were friends of David Hill. Amelia’s work became sufficiently recognised for her to be awarded a number of important public commissions, an incredible achievement for a woman in Scotland during the era. 

It’s important to note that an alternative arts society which Amelia helped create in 1877 – The Albert Institute – opened its arms to artists regardless of gender. 

The Disruption by David O Hill








During the early 1860s, Amelia helped David Hill with ‘The Disruption’. This immense painting is unique for the time in that the faces of those included are apparently very lifelike since David Hill used calotype prints (early photographs) and pencil drawings to paint accurate faces,  Amelia likely using similar techniques when making her additions. 

In 1870, Amelia sculpted a stunning bronze bust of David Hill after his death, which was set over his grave in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh (She was buried in the same lair). By then, she was a well-established sculptor and her work was to be found in many Scottish locations e.g. niche figures on the Sir Walter Scott Monument in Edinburgh; the David Livingstone statue you can find right next to the Scott Monument; and a statue of Scottish poet Robert Burns in Dumfries is her design though it was carved in Italy by Cararra sculptors. She sculpted many of the busts of notable worthies around Scotland that are in museums and in private collections.  

Sir Walter Scott Monument
Princes Street
Edinburgh CC













If visiting Edinburgh, wave hello to Amelia Robertson Hill's work as you wander along Princes Street, under the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

Slainte! 


Sunday, 30 March 2025

#Women’s History Month – Isabella Elder

Hello! I'm cutting it fine before the end of March but here's another post about a worthy Victorian woman. 

Who was Isabella Elder and why do I want to write about her?

Isabella Elder
by John Everett-Millais 
CC












As a young child I spent many weekends in Govan, Glasgow, staying with my grampa and nana ( my maiden Aunt Nan) who lived a little bit along the road and around the corner from the Elder Park and the local library. However, at that time I didn’t know of Isabella Elder’s association to the library.

Isabella was a philanthropist, interested in improving the education of local people, women in particular. During Isabella’s life, Govan was not part of the city of Glasgow but a separate township with its own local administration. (It wasn’t till 1912 that Govan became an official area of Glasgow.)

Born in the Gorbals in 1828, which at that time had some prestigious housing, Isabella’s father was a solicitor (Alexander Ure). Though her education is unknown, she must have mingled in the circles of the more elite, wealthy people of the area since she married John Elder in 1857, a partner in the marine engineering firm Randolf Elder & Co. By 1860, the firm acquired a shipyard in Govan which thrived. By 1868, it became John Elder & Co. and was one of the most successful shipyards in the world though, unfortunately, Isabella’s husband John died in 1869 (he was only 43 years old). For the best part of a year, Isabella managed the shipyard herself, a most unusual situation for a woman in 1869. However, she relinquished sole management by 1870 and went into a partnership with her brother, John Ure.

With fewer day-to-day shipyard responsibilities, Isabella was rich and free to choose what she wanted to do (within the limits society set upon her). She had no children to look after and was free to explore the continent. Though closer to home she became a major benefactress in the Glasgow area. She donated a sizeable sum to Glasgow University to the Chair of Engineering and funded an endowment for the John Elder Chair of Naval Architecture.  There were other scholarships set up in John Elder’s name.

Particularly interested in the education of women Isabella went on to buy a large property in the prestigious west end of Glasgow, North Park House, which she then used to set up as a college for women. Queen Margaret College was the first college in Scotland to offer higher education to women. By 1890, Isabella began to fund medical courses for women at Queen  Margaret College though awarding women a degree wasn’t possible till a few years later when the college was amalgamated with Glasgow University, no doubt due to the influence and persistence of Isabella Elder (whose financial contributions weren’t not to be sneezed at).  The medical courses for women were taught by lecturers at Glasgow University, so the women were gaining a similar course of study as was given to male students and the first women graduated as medical practitioners in 1892. By 1898, women were also graduating in the Arts from Queen Margaret College/ Glasgow University. Not content to just organize the setting up of the facilities for women, Isabella ensured that standards continued to be met as per her original agreements with the university – in her book women weren’t to be given any sort of inferior programme of education. It was always to match the academic standards of courses for men and she was prepared to withhold any finances she donated to ensure it happened!

Isabella was awarded an honorary degree (LLD) from Glasgow University in 1901 for her contributions to women’s education in the area.

In the early 1880s, Isabella purchased land near the Elder’s Fairfield shipyard and had a public park built in honour of her husband and his father David.  Wanting to do more for the poorer women of the area, the School for Domestic Economy was established where young women learned how to cook and perform other household tasks on a limited budget. The Elder Free Library, at one end of the park, was funded and stocked by Isabella. During the early 1900s, she funded the building of the Elder Cottage Hospital and a nearby villa which was the Cottage Nurses training home. Those buildings were still in situ when my grampa and Nana took me walking around Govan in the late 1950s.

By 1905, Isabella’s health was failing. She suffered from gout and bronchitis and died of heart failure on the 18th November 1905. It’s worthy of noting that her official death certificate was signed by Dr. Marion Gilchrist, the first woman to graduate as a doctor from Glasgow University.

Memorial window at Glasgow University CC









There are many tributes to Isabella’s generosity one of which is a memorial window in Bute House, Glasgow University, titled “The Pursuit of Ideal Education”. (She is depicted alongside Janet Anne Galloway and Jessie Campbell other women who should be given some limelight?)

Isabella Elder- Elder Park  CC
by sculptor Archibald Macfarlane Shannon,
a Glasgow University Graduate












In 1906, the current Provost of Govan, unveiled a very fine bronze statue of Isabella Elder in the Elder Park. Much of the £2000 need to fund the statue came from a public collection, many of the local people wanting to give something back to Isabella Elder.

I have childhood memories of seeing the statues in the Elder Park where I paddled in the pond on hot summer days in the late 1950s. My grandfather, I’m sure, knew all about Isabella Elder and probably told me about her though my memories are hazy. Born in 1884, my grampa was a sheet iron worker in that very same Fairfield Shipyard where he spent all his working life. He probably even remembered Isabella’s death since her was born and lived just a couple of short streets away from the park. My grampa, Edward Callan Auld was a feisty union member, a high-ranking shop steward, and continued in his own way to ensure that men working at the Fairfield shipyard in Govan got a good deal.

It's at a time like this that I wish I could remember many more of my grampa’s Govan stories.

Slainte! 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isabella_Elder_biz_Sir_John_Everett_Millais.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Janet_Galloway_Memorial_Window,_Bute_Hall,_University_of_Glasgow.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Isabella_Elder,_Elder_Park,_Govan,_Glasgow.jpg