This time last week I finished Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod - a futuristic thriller set in Edinburgh and New Zealand. It was a fun read with lots of very interesting ideas about robots and religion but none of them were fully explored in my view.
However, that is not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the locations - but not the two previously mentioned. No I want to talk about the place where the final confrontation happens. The book's heroes - The Lothian and Borders police - sent a civilian, undercover, into the baddies meeting place. So where are these world threatening baddies hiding out, I hear you ask? Linlithgow!!!
Now for those who don't know the place - for haven't bothered to click through to the Wikipedia Article - Linlithgow is my home town. It is small (a population of 13,400) and very little happens. Most exciting things to happen over the past five years are the announcement that Scotty from Star Trek was from Linlithgow (He is due to be born in the town in 2222) and Linlithgow Rose winning the Scottish Junior Cup.
Yet, the idea of world threatening terrorists hiding out in my sleepy home town is not that surprising...if you know the history of Linlithgow. In 1570, James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, became the first ever person to be assassinated by a firearm. Ironicly the assassination took place just outside the old Linlithgow Sherrif Court. Let's hope, however, let's hope that it is only fictional terrorists that decide to base themselves in my home town!
No comments:
Post a Comment