Edinburgh is the world’s first ever UNESCO City of Literature. It is internationally famous for its rich literary history, as well as the large number of writers still living and working in the city today. This project traces some of the stories of Edinburgh’s earliest literary past. Following these trails you can walk in the footsteps of long-dead writers, uncover connections between the words produced in and about the city and the city itself, looking at Edinburgh’s landscape through different eyes.
“A Secret Golden Age” is for literature-lovers and for walkers, for long-term Edinburgh residents and first-time visitors alike. If you love reading, or walking, or both, and would like to know more about the early literary history of Edinburgh and Scotland then this project is for you. It is suitable for those already familiar with early Scottish literature, as well as those coming to it for the first time. It focuses on literature written in English and Scots, with brief mention of Latin writing. There is, of course, another rich literary tradition which is not covered here: writing in Gaelic.
The project is based at the University of Edinburgh, and features recent literary research and historical information as well as literary extracts. It was created by a team including researchers from the Department of English Literature at Edinburgh and digital experts from the company Ladarnas, with generous advice and support from the City of Literature Trust. The project was generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain.