Kate Stephenson – författare

Whether you’re a lifelong book lover or a curious traveller, this guide is the perfect companion to discovering Edinburgh’s extraordinary literary heritage. Explore the places and authors that have shaped the city’s cultural and physical landscape, from sites of literary history and interest to buildings and vistas that inspired famous poems and novels. Including many iconic Edinburgh sights, this guide also draws on local knowledge to highlight some lesser-known gems hidden away in the Old Town or located further afield in the city.After a brief history of Edinburgh, the guide offers five detailed walking trails. These allow readers to follow in the footsteps of some of the best-known writers associated with Edinburgh from Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson to J.K. Rowling and Diana Gabaldon. The second section delves into Edinburgh’s wider literary associations. Organised by geographical area, it spans a diverse range of authors, poets and playwrights across many centuries, uncovering unexpected connections, fascinating pieces of history and even a widely-disseminated literary hoax. The third and final section explores the city’s vibrant literary scene today, detailing museums, bookshops, and festivals, such as the world-renowned Edinburgh International Book Festival and Festival Fringe.

Chasing the tale of one of the world's most iconic dog breeds, this book celebrates the enduring appeal of the greyhound. From the earliest evidence of sighthounds to the modern day, greyhounds have been renowned for their extraordinary speed and powerful prey drive. Used for hunting, coursing and racing, they have also been aristocratic status symbols, treasured pets and commercial investments through the centuries.The first three chapters of the book are arranged broadly chronologically with the first charting the development of the greyhound from pre-history through to the eleventh century. Chapter two investigates the impact of the Norman Conquest and the imposition of forest laws, tracing how power, land and privilege shaped who kept greyhounds and why. It continues the story through the medieval and Early Modern periods in which these factors continued to play a significant role. Chapter three explores the profound social and economic changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, focusing on the rise of organised sport through coursing, racing and showing, before bringing the narrative up to date. Chapter four examines the practical realities of greyhound keeping including naming, training, housing, feeding and clothing, as well as how these practices evolved over time. The final chapter moves away from the breed history to explore greyhounds in fiction, fashion, marketing and as a known symbol of speed, considering how their image and name have been used in popular culture and how this reflected wider perceptions of the breed.

What's a djibbah, how long has the old school tie been around and do yellow petticoats really repel vermin? How have social and educational changes affected the appearance of schoolchildren? This book will provide answers to these questions and more, in an engaging foray into 500 years of British school uniform history from the charity schools of the sixteenth century through the Victorian public schools to the present day.In this cross-disciplinary work, Kate Stephenson presents the first comprehensive academic study of school uniform development in Britain as well as offering an analysis of the social and institutional contexts in which this development occurred. With recent debates around the cost, necessity and religious implications of school uniform and its (re)introduction and increasingly formal appearance in many schools, this book is a timely reminder that modern ideas associated with school uniform are the result of a long history of communicating (and disguising) identity.

What's a djibbah, how long has the old school tie been around and do yellow petticoats really repel vermin? How have social and educational changes affected the appearance of schoolchildren? This book will provide answers to these questions and more, in an engaging foray into 500 years of British school uniform history from the charity schools of the sixteenth century through the Victorian public schools to the present day.In this cross-disciplinary work, Kate Stephenson presents the first comprehensive academic study of school uniform development in Britain as well as offering an analysis of the social and institutional contexts in which this development occurred. With recent debates around the cost, necessity and religious implications of school uniform and its (re)introduction and increasingly formal appearance in many schools, this book is a timely reminder that modern ideas associated with school uniform are the result of a long history of communicating (and disguising) identity.