Rear View ANSWER MACHINE
AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON BY LOUISE WELSH
It’s with a degree of trepidation that I agree to meet Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Kidnapped, Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. An itchy footed traveller, he explored Edinburgh’s lower depths before Irvine Welsh learnt to talk . . .
LW So Robert. how do you feel?
RLS Pretty good for a dead man.
LW If you don't mind me saying so. you've a reputation for being a bit morbid.
RLS Can you blame me? Take a look at my birth City. It‘s chucking it down. there's a constant mistral from the sea driving everyone half daft. You daren't look at anyone sideways for fear of getting your face smashed and the population have either signed the pledge or hit the bottle. It's depressing. I've not been in this pub in a long while but there's the same faces propped at the bar. Then there's the religion . . .
LW We'll get onto religion later. But you must admit you're on the gloomy flank of the fantastical. One of my favourite stories. 'The Body Snatchers'. is about two medical students digging up a dead body for dissection.
RLS That proves my pOint. It was based on fact. Williams Burke and Hare had a cottage industry Supplying exceedingly fresh cadavers to Dr Robert Knox. one of Edinl’Jurgh's leading anatomists. They murdered 16 people before their racket was uncovered.
LW You do seem a bit obsessed With vivrsection. Dr Jekyll‘s laboratory is an old dissecting theatre.
1 12 THE LIST 1 153 Feb 900/
RSL Nice touch. eh?
Lw Masterly.
RLS You know my health was never good?
LW You were at death's door most of the time.
RLS Cheers for reminding me. Anyway. during a particularly bad bout. when l was confined to bed for fear movement might set off more haemorrhages. the doctor prescribed an excellent opium—based consolation, which brought forth the finest bogey dream. That was the start.
LW Jekyll writes. 'The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were. as I have said. undignified . . . l was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity.‘ I've got to ask. what were his sinful pleasures? Something sexual? RLS Whatever you make them.
LW But you must have had something mind.
RLS Jekyll's error lay not in his sin but in hypocrisy. LW So he should have stopped swishing around in secret and come out?
RLS Ach you‘re obsessed with sex.
Lw As a young guy you were quite a one for the ladies.
RLS Is that a question?
LW More an invitation to reminisce.
RLS Well (Strokes his moustache) l was a favourite with the women of the Royal Mile. they christened me velvet coat — l was a bit of a dandy in those days — and there were occasions when I didn't have to pay. LW Most impressive. (Purses lips) You‘ve nothing against prostitution then?
RLS Everyone's got to make a living. Anyway. all the i0urnalism I did. all those essays to pay the bills. I don't think I'm in any position to judge. How about you? Do a fair bit of this kind of interviewing?
LW Reasonable amount. (Shuttles notes‘) You settled down eventually though. Is it true that you crossed the Atlantic in search of Fanny?
RLS Would you like to rephrase that?
LW Sorry. the courtship between you and Fanny Osborne is one of the most beautiful in literary history. RLS That's better. As my old uncle used to say. ‘I married a besom and never regretted it'.
LW Treasure Island is the first book I remember reading.
RLS (Looks pleased) Is that right?
LW Yes. it had a treaSure map printed on the flyleaf with a big compass and a skeleton dancing on the treasure trove.
RLS I said to my pal Henley. ‘lf this don't fetch the kids. why they have gone rotten since my day!’ It had everything a youngster could wish: treasure. a derelict ship. buccaneers and a parrot.
LW Alberto Manguel has pointed out the poetic irony that the last words of the author of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde were. “Does my face look strange?‘
RLS Well I‘m glad someone finds it poetic. I found it bloody painful and frustrating. Sudden darkness and Weir of Herm/‘ston. the novel that should have been my masterpiece. half finished on my desk.
LW There's been quite a few attempts by writers to finish it.
RLS Over my dead body.
LW Yes. I think that‘s the idea.
RLS Are we almost done?
LW Near enough. Want to talk about religion before we finish up?
RLS Aye we could but . . .
LW But?
RLS I can feel the start of the ebb tide that'll pull me back to the grave. and cosy though it is. mingling my bones with the wife's. I thought I might take a turn down the High Street . . .
LW And drop by the cathedral?
RLS No. see if the ghosts of the girls I once knew are still on patrol.
LABOUR OF LOVE
Robert Louis Stevenson’s historical adventure Kidnapped is brought hang up to date in a new graphic novel version. Illustrator Cam Kennedy talked to Allan Radcliffe about the challenges of retelling a much-loved story.
I When Edinburgh‘s City of Literature Trust came to elect the classic book they felt best represented Scotland for the One City — One Book mass reading campaign, Kidnapped seemed an obvious choice. However. the suggestion that Robert Louis Stevenson‘s breakneck-paced historical novel be adapted as a (SA-page graphic novel was initially met with raised eyebrows.
'I think some of the academics were saying. “Well, what's a graphic novel?“ laughs Cam Kennedy, the illustrator eventually charged with re- imagining Stevenson's tale.
Asked about the task of adapting the iconic novel — which teams penniless orphan David Balfour with fugitive swordsman Alan Breck for a breathless flight through the heather in the aftermath of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion — Kennedy confirms that both he and writer Alan Grant jumped at the chance.
‘We both loved the book. and it was something a bit different from the usual run of the mill stuff we work on. like Judge Dredd, and Batman. We tried to keep the essential ingredients of the story alongside some really exciting visuals. There was a little bit of ping ponging back and forth with ideas. but the whole thing probably only took about nine weeks to draw.‘
Despite its solid historical background. Kennedy insists Kidnapped has all the ingredients of a good graphic novel.
‘lt's not just a great adventure. it‘s a buddy stOry. it's got good historical content and I'm sure most contemporary Scottish writers have read it and pinched bits of it for their own work.‘
While Kennedy tried not to be influenced by the numerous screen adaptations of the book. such as the film starring Michael Caine and the recent BBC drama. some versions he encountered were easier to ignore than others.
‘There's a Marvel Classics version by an illustrator who had obviously never been to Scotland. Alan Breck had on a Caesar Romero hat. David Balfour wore wee trousers with braces. and there were palm trees in the background. My version at least has authenticity on its side.‘
I See Big Picture, page 7 l, and listings for details of the One City — One Book campaign, which runs throughout February in the capital.