Elspeth Barker, novelist.
She wrote one book: “O Caledonia”.
The book recounts the short, unhappy life of a girl named Janet, who, like Ms. Barker, grew up half-feral in a neo-Gothic castle in rural Scotland, avoiding people and befriending jackdaws. Both faced constant harassment from local boys, and both sought refuge in foreign languages and books.
Though the novel opens with Janet newly dead, murdered on a staircase, it is full of life, energized by Ms. Barker’s thistle-sharp eye for natural detail: She writes of mist that “floats in steaming filaments off the glens” and of Janet shaking “wet honeysuckle over her face.”
“O Caledonia,” her only novel, was a hit among readers and critics. It sold widely in Europe and won a number of minor British literary awards, including the Scottish Book Prize, and was shortlisted for a major one, the Whitbread Book Award (now the Costa Book Award).
To be honest, I probably would have let this get past me, if it wasn’t for this line from the obit:
On a totally unrelated note, I don’t have a good place to put this, so I’m sticking it here.
Horridge, who spent 25 years as the Houston Oilers’ mascot they called Roughneck, died at the age of 86, according to KPRC2’s Randy McIlvoy.
Horridge always wore a Columbia blue shirt over his shoulder pads with a shiny chrome hardhat emblazoned with the Oilers’ oil derrick logo and he carried a 48-inch rig wrench, which he used to implore the Astrodome crowd to make some noise.
Before the Oilers’ 1979 AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh, Horridge told The Washington Post that he used to carry a plastic wrench with him at games, but he switched to a real one that weighed 44 pounds after some Steelers fans tried to rough him up in Pittsburgh after the AFC title game the previous season.
Longtime Houston Oilers mascot Art Horridge has passed away at the age of 86. I think all of us who went to games and covered the Oilers remember Art and his passion for the #Oilers @BudsOilers . Thanks to his family for sending these pics to us @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/78bgxcNZxm
— Randy McIlvoy (@KPRC2RandyMc) May 19, 2022
(Hattip: Lawrence.)
I had a lot of fun reading that sans-home article you threw in there. Also the comments.
“It is an important British book award. Avoid any book that wins it.”
Thanks for including it.