Edinburgh, 1827Sir Walter Scott has agreed to chair a fund-raising dinner in aid of Edinburgh’s Theatrical Fund. It is less than a year since his beloved wife died, and this will be his first foray into society since then. Everybody who is anybody in Edinburgh’s social, political, legal and literary life will be there – only the men, of course, women are excluded from such prestigious events unless they sit quietly and out of sight. His mind drifts, and he wonders if some of the literary and theatrically influential women he knows might be attending discreetly. If so, their conversation would no doubt be far more interesting than that of his fellow diners. What he doesn’t know is that his friend, Lord Meadowbank, has decided to use the auspicious occasion to unveil Scott as his hitherto anonymous author of the Waverley novels, causing an international sensation, with reports of the revelation travelling across the world in the days and weeks that follow. To mark the bicentenary of this remarkable moment in the history of Scottish literature, Helen Graham has brought the event to life, writing an account in the voice of Scott himself.
