“I met a traveller from an antique land,Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. . . . nothing beside remains…“ Ozymandias A letter from Scotland is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I got this comment from my uncle David Kemp. "The best World in Action I made was on the Special Unit in Barlinnie. I interviewed Boyle at length.I was the producer, but also the interviewer, and I wrote the script. I'm afraid I don't remember the date - my memory isn't what it was - but it was very soon after I first joined Granada. Of those I interviewed, I liked Larry Winters best. He later committed suicide. The unit itself was an extraordinary experiment - a group of extremely dangerous murderers living in comparative freedom, with knives in their kitchen etc. etc. Ricky Demarco (remember, his archive was at Summerhall when we went there last year) was a frequent visitor and instrumental in getting Boyle released."
Helen established many things in her official role as Craigmillar Festival Society's "Organising Secretary": events, meeting venues, workshops, childcare schemes, adult education programmes, etc. She was also the original editor of "Craigmillar Festival News", which went on to become one of the city's longest-running community newspapers—despite a few hiccups along the way, it lasted 30 years between spring 1970 and March 2000, with successor title "The (Craigmillar) Chronicle" surviving a further 11 years.
Alas, no; but I have done some research on the history of Craigmillar Festival News, including looking through back issues held by the Central Library and arts/heritage organisation Craigmillar Now. (I've acquired an interest in Edinburgh's community newspapers since I took on the editorship of "C&B News".)
To be honest, it was initially just to see how long it lasted, as obviously the original origins of the Craigmillar Festival go back to early 1962 However, CFS only became a charity in 1970, which was when the original newsletter (manually-typed, fullscap sized paper, later A4, then tabloid) was launched. Being published by CFS had its advantages and disadvantages; the strengths that came from being part of a significantly larger organisation, but the weakness that when cash was short (usually when EEC grants rant out) a locally-distributed newspaper understandably lost out to maintaining local childcare services and adult training. Ultimately, it was only when CFNews began to receive editorial funding from the Edinburgh Community Newspaper Trust (established by Edinburgh District and Lothian Regional Council to support six community newspapers formerly funded by Manpower Services) that it was able to maintain a monthly schedule.
By the late 1990s, however, CFS had been declared too large, too unwieldy, and possibly just a bit too revolutionary for "top-down" Edinburgh to cope with, so its various services and projects were essentially split off, and that included CFNews. Eventually, I think it became easier for the then editorial/production team to legally separate from CFS and relaunch as The Craigmillar Chronicle (later The Chronicle, when their main public funding came from the Portobello/Craigmillar Neighbourhood Partnership Fairer Scotland Fund, post the winding up of the ECNT.
I got this comment from my uncle David Kemp. "The best World in Action I made was on the Special Unit in Barlinnie. I interviewed Boyle at length.I was the producer, but also the interviewer, and I wrote the script. I'm afraid I don't remember the date - my memory isn't what it was - but it was very soon after I first joined Granada. Of those I interviewed, I liked Larry Winters best. He later committed suicide. The unit itself was an extraordinary experiment - a group of extremely dangerous murderers living in comparative freedom, with knives in their kitchen etc. etc. Ricky Demarco (remember, his archive was at Summerhall when we went there last year) was a frequent visitor and instrumental in getting Boyle released."
Helen established many things in her official role as Craigmillar Festival Society's "Organising Secretary": events, meeting venues, workshops, childcare schemes, adult education programmes, etc. She was also the original editor of "Craigmillar Festival News", which went on to become one of the city's longest-running community newspapers—despite a few hiccups along the way, it lasted 30 years between spring 1970 and March 2000, with successor title "The (Craigmillar) Chronicle" surviving a further 11 years.
Thanks for that. Did you know Helen?
Alas, no; but I have done some research on the history of Craigmillar Festival News, including looking through back issues held by the Central Library and arts/heritage organisation Craigmillar Now. (I've acquired an interest in Edinburgh's community newspapers since I took on the editorship of "C&B News".)
To be honest, it was initially just to see how long it lasted, as obviously the original origins of the Craigmillar Festival go back to early 1962 However, CFS only became a charity in 1970, which was when the original newsletter (manually-typed, fullscap sized paper, later A4, then tabloid) was launched. Being published by CFS had its advantages and disadvantages; the strengths that came from being part of a significantly larger organisation, but the weakness that when cash was short (usually when EEC grants rant out) a locally-distributed newspaper understandably lost out to maintaining local childcare services and adult training. Ultimately, it was only when CFNews began to receive editorial funding from the Edinburgh Community Newspaper Trust (established by Edinburgh District and Lothian Regional Council to support six community newspapers formerly funded by Manpower Services) that it was able to maintain a monthly schedule.
By the late 1990s, however, CFS had been declared too large, too unwieldy, and possibly just a bit too revolutionary for "top-down" Edinburgh to cope with, so its various services and projects were essentially split off, and that included CFNews. Eventually, I think it became easier for the then editorial/production team to legally separate from CFS and relaunch as The Craigmillar Chronicle (later The Chronicle, when their main public funding came from the Portobello/Craigmillar Neighbourhood Partnership Fairer Scotland Fund, post the winding up of the ECNT.
That sounds like a good job to do