All That You May Find Interesting

THE LEGEND OF JOHN MACNAB,SYNOPSIS Written by James Christie(Friend Of Coach House Trust)

Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful, it is said, weaves the threads of men’s destinies into many strange tapestries. The threads from which The Legend of John Macnab has been woven came from many times and many places. An ayah in the Nilgiri Hills, the Islamic University of Bangalore, legends of Columba, Merlin and the Abbey of Deer, a wager made by a bored officer on a West Highland estate in 1897, the death of Princess Diana and, central to it all, the theft of a gospel illuminated manuscript greater than the Book of Kells by a librarian on the eve of Scottish devolution in 1997. His aim, to take it to the West Highland village of Glenfinnan and reconsecrate the Church of St Finnan, recently vandalised.The librarian is John Sandiman (apparently a potential character’s name John Buchan never used). Resident but not at home in Glasgow’s West End in the late nineteen-nineties, he is of West Highland ancestry, has a strong interest in history and an even stronger affinity with Glenfinnan, which is near the estate where his forefathers worked and in the diocese of Roddy Wright, then Bishop of Argyll and the Isles.

It is late 1996 and, with devolution, a new Scottish Parliament and Labour’s ascension to power looming, the Stone of Destiny has been returned to Edinburgh Castle. Sandiman is unimpressed. It can’t be proven that this is the real Stone, few Scots seem to have much idea about the roots of their own history out of which the current political mess has arisen, and the so-called united kingdom seems to be quietly coming apart at the seams as it lurches blindly into the future.Sandiman, an intense red-haired man in his mid-thirties, is wearied by it all. He is disillusioned with his library job at a Glasgow college which seems, much like the country, to be falling apart. He’s a bit of a loner, haunted by memories of the "legendary ex-girlfriend" Jessica from Skye with whom he fell in love years before at Glenfinnan’s church while they sheltered from the rain; fond of Natalie, his current library assistant, sparring partner and muse; uncertain about Mike (IT support, possible drug-user and probable psycho); and cordially loathes Guy Mannering, finance manager and fascist.Sandiman doesn’t know it, but the threads of a historical tapestry are forming around him. Forces which fourteen centuries before influenced a monk called Finnan in a glen which would one day bear his name are rising. Finnan, privy to a vision of scholars writing on tablets in wedge-shaped script in a land far to the East, taught Columba, Columba founded the Abbey of Deer (twelve miles inland from modern-day Peterhead). Monks at Deer created the Book of Deer, a gospel illuminated manuscript predating the Book of Kells. Holding the Word of God, the illumination acting as a window for looking at God, carried into battle by clans, works of Celtic art like the Book of Deer were icons which rallied nations and consecrated kings. The Book of Deer itself also has 11th century annotations, arguably the first words written in Scottish Gaelic, and is now in Cambridge University Library.

In a word, the Book of Deer is more important and more genuine than the Stone of Destiny because its history and provenance are certain. The Stone at Edinburgh is probably the real thing, but there will always be niggling doubts. Unfortunately, the Stone gets the publicity while the Book is forgotten by today’s secular society which doesn’t remember the importance of religious icons.Sandiman, however, gets a reminder. Natalie tells him she saw something about the Book of Deer on Reporting Scotland a week before the Stone was returned. Reporters asked passers-by in Aberdeen’s Union Street if they had ever heard of the manuscript, arguably more important than the Stone. Nobody had.Then, in short order, St Finnan’s church is vandalized, Roddy Wright disgraces his bishopric (which includes Glenfinnan and Iona), and Guy Mannering tries to make Sandiman slash his library budget and fire Mike, the psychopathic IT support guy. Sandiman is slowly building towards rebellion-slash-mid-life-crisis as he feels, more and more clearly, that he is part of a society which has no respect for its past, no idea what it’s doing at the moment and no idea where it’s going in the future. A foul-mouthed student pushes him over the edge, and when Mannering refuses to do anything at all about the student’s behaviour, Sandiman does indeed rebel.Mannering is told where to stick his cuts, Sandiman and Mike lose their jobs but not their self-respect, and Sandiman and Natalie end up making love in his flat. Their verbal sparring had always disguised a mutual attraction. Sandiman then goes north to decide what to do next. He remembers a conversation he had with a girl at Glenfinnan’s visitor centre. She had told him about the vandalism of Finnan’s church, but also about events at a nearby West Highland estate in 1897 which provided the inspiration for John Buchan’s novel, John Macnab. In the back of Sandiman’s mind, dormant, lies Natalie’s mention of the Book of Deer.On the eve of 1997, the threads come together. Sandiman will become John Macnab and steal the Book of Deer! Quite what he’ll do with it once he’s stolen it, neither he nor we are sure, but it’s a start!As Sandiman prepares and researches, several short chapters dramatically fill the reader in on the Book of Deer’s history as 1997 progresses, Labour wins the general election and devolution draws closer. Topically, the creators of gospel manuscripts - Christendom and Islam - are compared, the way Britain was slowly united by consecrated kings over the centuries is explained, and one of the "Book of Deer" chapters recounts the Book’s appearance in the hands of one of Princess Diana’s ancestors in 1695. In those days, the Royal Houses had real power and Robert Spencer would have recognised the importance of such an icon.Sandiman decides to use the Book of Deer to reconsecrate the Church of St Finnan on the eve of devolution and, as John Macnab, to constructively criticise a Scotland which seems to have become so apathetic it may not even bother to vote for a Scottish Parliament. In brief, he successfully steals the Book from Cambridge, leaving a message from John Macnab in its place, and hides out in a cave above Loch Lochy until the furore subsides and he can reach Glenfinnan.Sandiman waits in isolation, knowing nothing of the events unfolding in Paris…A week or so later, Sandiman comes out of his cave wondering what the media will be saying about him. He is surprised to learn that while he was incommunicado, Princess Diana has died in a Paris car crash! Naturally, the papers are all covering this story and the Deer theft has been relegated to the back pages. At first, Sandiman assumes that the crash in the Alma tunnel must have been an accident, but then a strange thought occurs to him:

Princess Diana’s family, the Royal House of Spencer, has sought the British throne for centuries. Diana, in particular, desperately wanted her son to be king.

However, the united kingdom, which the Royal Houses put together in the first place, seems to be coming apart at the seams via devolution and the death of Diana is endangering the monarchy. No Royal House would want that.

Just before history, then, is due to take a different path, John Macnab steals one of the ancient icons which consecrated the kings who united Britain and can perhaps still sway opinion, and the mother of the future king dies violently!

Sandiman, up until now, has only been concerned with his own localised aims. He cannot know that he is part of an endgame being played over fourteen centuries by mysterious forces, or that he is part of an intricate historical tapestry. But now, just for a moment, he begins to suspect there is a greater pattern at work, a tapestry he cannot even begin to comprehend…Nevertheless, all he can do now is go on with his own plan, but as he passes through Fort William the plot twists. He runs into Jessica, the legendary ex-girlfriend and now a police officer.Jessica hesitates and, instead of arresting Sandiman, talks with him. In a brief conversation in a coffee shop, she becomes symbolic of the Scots who, in William McIlvanney’s words, "… are forever chapping on doors for years begging to be let in and then when the door finally opens they back off saying ‘No, no, I didn’t want to come in after all’."

Sandiman challengers her about her hesitation, she queries his motives for the theft. He thinks back to Mannering’s refusal to do anything about the student and explains that that had been the last straw, that he wants to do something to prove that not all Scots are apathetic cringers, that he’s going to take that book back [to Finnan’s church], tell them all who wrote it, why it was written, and what it stands foThen he challenges her in return: arrest me, or let me go [Scotland] but have the guts to make a decision!Jessica lets him go. Sandiman takes the Book to Finnan’s church and leaves it on the altar complete with his rallying message for Scots to vote on devolution.With a sense of closure, Sandiman leaves the church and walks into an utterly unexpected plot twist. An old gentleman is sitting on a bench, calmly looking out at the waters of Loch Shiel where, fourteen centuries before, a monk called Finnan was influenced to send his pupil, Columba, to Iona and Deer…Sandiman recognises the gentleman, and the conversation that ensues explains the purpose of the historical tapestry in which John Macnab and the Book of Deer played a small but pivotal role. This meeting completely wrong-foots the reader although hints about the identity of the old gentlemen have been woven into the text.Partly because of the pivotal influence of John Macnab’s rallying message, delivered just at the right time, partly because Britain finds itself united in grief over the death of Diana, the monarchy survives and a deeper national unity is forged despite Scotland’s successful vote for devolution. An island kingdom which could have turned back into a bunch of spiteful, warring tribes has been made aware of its past, and of its common identity. In a wider context, it is hinted that Christendom and Islam need to do the same, but 9/11 is not part of this story.For Sandiman, unable to remember anything of his meeting with the old gentleman, there are a couple more twists to come. He decides to hand himself over to the police at Corrour station, where he first met Jessica. Natalie turns up during the arrest and Sandiman, dense male that he is, realises she’s the girl for him! At the police station in Fort William, the matter of the theft of the Book of Deer is handled diplomatically and Sandiman bumps into Jessica. He quietly realises that he really did do it all for her, but now he has closure and, more importantly, Natalie.A little while later, he and Natalie drive up to Glenfinnan to muse on past and future, on how a country can be devolved yet united, for one thing. As Sandiman puts it:

"Parliament might run the state machine but only a king can command a nation’s soul".

Then, another twist. Sandiman explains to Natalie that his great-grandfather was a ghillie on the estate near Glenfinnan where a bored officer first created the legend of John Macnab, and that he had watched as the officer hunted the deer. John Buchan had based the idea of John Macnab on the officer, but might have based the character of Jim Tarras on Sandiman’s ancestor. Sandiman, therefore, was the nearest possible link to John Macnab. The right person to become John Macnab at the right time.There is an epilogue, tying up the last of the tapestry’s loose ends. On the last day of his life, Columba climbs to the top of a hill on Iona and looks upon his island. He thinks of the vision Finnan saw, of scholars writing on tablets in wedge-shaped script in a land far to the East, and dreams of unity between East and West. Of abbots conversing with Eastern scholars, of longboats sailing from Dalriada to Jerusalem…Columba’s last words (as per Adomnan) give us hope for the future, tying up one of the book’s major themes: that books like Deer and Kells were created by the combined ability and knowledge of Christendom and Islam, and that peace may flower between the two religions.

Afterword

My father was born in India, learnt Hindi, Urdu and Tamil from his ayah before he knew English, and studied at the Islamic University of Bangalore, where he picked up the tapestry quote. Apparently, Muhammad said quite a few things not included in the Qur’an, so these words are oral history, fourteen centuries old.With the knowledge I picked up from Islam, I was able to compare it with Christendom before 9/11, and Princess Diana died about four months after I found her family link to the Book of Deer. At two points in the text, I may also have slightly rewritten Scottish history!The chapter concerning the theft of the Book from Cambridge needs more descriptive work, while the historical aspects may need more trimming, but this complex tapestry weighs in at a lean 75,000 words. It has been checked by a history professor (Simon Taylor), revised by my former creative writing tutor (Geoff Sutton) and edited by Mike Fariss. Also, I believe Buchan’s works came out of copyright last year.1997 was a pivotal year in history. It looked like the monarchy and united kingdom might crumble (similar subject matter to The Queen) Blair’s Labour government was just beginning and tensions between Christendom and Islam were increasing. I loosely define this book as a "historical thriller", and reader interest in matters of religion and history has been whetted by The Da Vinci Code. It’s ambitious, but I also wanted to give Scots a fresh insight into their ancient past and relate it to the recent past.It’s a risk, of course, but in the end no-one has ever really publicised the Book of Deer properly before. This manuscript might be in the right place at the right time.I hope to hear from you.

Kenneth A. Burns,Coach House Trust Art Teacher

Garden Party For Jon and Garbene Returning To Spain

Ralph Genis,Playing At Bolshie Cafe Open Mike

Clikc For Ralph's Musical's Homepage(Angelfire)

Ralph Gerald Genis With Vintage Acoustic Guitar

Click Ralph's How To Create Style Homepage