By William W. Starr
Whisky, Kilts, and the Loch Ness Monster is a memoir of a twenty-first-century literary pilgrimage to retrace the recognized eighteenth-century Scottish trip of James Boswell and Samuel Johnson, of the main celebrated writers in their day. William W. Starr enlivens this crisply written travelogue with a playful wit, an enthusiasm for all issues Scottish, the boon and burden of yank sensibility, and an ardent appreciation for Boswell and Johnson—who make widespread cameos all through those ramblings.
In 1773 the sixty-three-year-old Johnson used to be England's preeminent guy of letters, and Boswell, a few thirty years Johnson's junior, was once at the cusp of accomplishing his personal literary famous person. For multiple hundred days, the celebrated duo toured what was once then mostly unknown Scottish terrain, later publishing their impressions of the journey in a couple of vintage journals. In 2007 Starr launched into a three-thousand-mile trek during the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands, following the path—though in reverse—of Boswell and Johnson. He recorded a wealth of willing observations on his encounters with humans and areas, lochs and lore, castles and clans, fables and foibles. Starr his modern remark with passages from Boswell's and Johnson's released bills, letters, and diaries to weave jointly a cohesive commute consultant to the Scotland of yore and at the present time. this can be a party of Scottish existence and a lively endorsement of the wondrous, usually unforeseen discoveries to be made via strong trip and solid writing.