title: Edinburgh Days, or Doing What I Want to Do (Non Series)
author: Sam Pickering
description: "In Edinburgh I imagined new experiences scratching my mind like heather, sharp but fragrant, ripping barky attitudes away, freeing both heartwood and matters of the heart so they could swell and throb. To a large extent I realized my hope."<br /><br />"No one else writes the contemporary personal essay quite like Pickering. His prose recalls the best and brightest masters of the genre, but with an original voice and style completely his own. This represents his finest work so far. . . . The pieces in this collection form a cohesive whole that is by turns evocatively descriptive, poignantly moving, deeply confessional, and richly comic--as only a learned and experienced wit can be."--George Garrett, professor emeritus of creative writing, University of Virginia
zlib_text: 
  
  
  ### _A Selection of Recent Titles by Anne Douglas_
  
  
  CATHERINE’S LAND
  
  
  AS THE YEARS GO BY
  
  
  BRIDGE OF HOPE
  
  
  THE BUTTERFLY GIRLS
  
  
  GINGER STREET
  
  
  A HIGHLAND ENGAGEMENT
  
  
  THE ROAD TO THE SANDS
  
  
  THE EDINBURGH BRIDE
  
  
  THE GIRL FROM WISH LANE *
  
  
  A SONG IN THE AIR *
  
  
  THE KILT MAKER *
  
  
  STARLIGHT *
  
  
  THE MELODY GIRLS *
  
  
  THE WARDEN’S DAUGHTERS *
  
  
  PRIMROSE SQUARE *
  
  
  THE HANDKERCHIEF TREE *
  
  
  TENEMENT GIRL *
  
  
  DREAMS TO SELL*
  
  
  A SILVER LINING *
  
  
  NOTHING VENTURED *
  
  
  * _available from Severn House_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## One
  
  
  Isla Scott was going home. Only for a weekend, from Friday at five to Sunday
  evening, when it would be back to Edinburgh Southern Hospital, ready for
  Monday. Not a break that came round very often, but nice when it did – seeing
  her parents in Edgemuir and her brother, Boyd, if he could get time off from
  the hydro where he worked.
  
  
  Here she was, then, lucky enough to get a seat in this train so full of people
  going home from work on that early January evening, and l