by Vivien Martin
HOW DO YOU see Edinburgh? What are your thoughts about our capital city? I’ve lived and worked in Edinburgh at different stages of my life and my memories and feelings towards the city are shaped by those experiences. My grown-up children live there now, as do many of my family. And they all see the city in different ways. Love it, and worry about it, for different reasons. Experiencing it on a daily basis, they see beyond the picture postcard images that adorn the tourist brochures. Images which give a one-sided view of what is a complex city. After all, Edinburgh was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s nightmarish tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: that chilling fable where a cultivated exterior belies the dark side lurking within. For underneath all its history and culture Edinburgh is not simply a tourist trap; there’s a real city there, with real people and all that that entails. And here’s where this book is important.