The Curewife
by Claire-Marie Watson.
Polygon ISBN 0954407547.
Winner of the 2002 Dundee Book Prize
In the reign of Charles I, Grissel Jaffray, The Curewife, arrives in Dundee as a new bride and begins a diary, intending to pass the story of her life and the lives of her ancestors to her first-born daughter.
Through the transcription of this diary, a powerful narrative unfolds. Grissel Jaffray has inherited a legacy of uncommon sagacity: the accumulated knowledge of her forebears who possessed the gift of healing and practiced withcraft for more than three centuries. Grissel is a woman of keen intelligence whose fictional journal graphically depicts life in seventeenth-century Dundee: a land of war, plague, political turmoil, and fanatical witch-hunts.
This compelling story, based on the very few known facts about the life of a real character, subtly embraces major historical figures and events, from Bannockburn and Robert the Bruce to Cromwell and Monck, regicide and the lost treasure of the River Tay.
Claire-Marie Watson was born and educated in Dundee, and has spent most of her adult life in London, with spells in Canada and Kenya. She worked for many years as PA to her husband, an architect, and recently returned to Dundee after spending several years travelling in Europe. The Curewife is her first novel.
‘A story of subtlety and dark intrigue told with immense skill’
Hilary Mantel
The Dundee Book Prize provides a precious opportunity for new authors to get noticed, writes Claire Marie Watson...
"And the winner is... The pause seemed endless.
I wanted to win the Dundee Book Prize so much I could taste it. I wanted professional confirmation that my writing merited publication. I wanted strangers to enjoy my words and become absorbed in characters who had filled my life for two years.
The competition had seemed like a welcome-home gift. All scripts would be guaranteed a reading by eminent professionals. Mine would not have to jostle for space in a clutter of famous names on a publisher’s desk. I wanted to match the brilliance of vision that had inspired this prize.
"...Claire-Marie Watson." And now I just wanted to control trembling legs and an overwhelming desire to cry.
Later, after the flowers had faded and the cards and letters had been carefully stored, I met the publishers. They suggested polishing and perfecting techniques and I accepted gratefully, though they never once insisted I must. From beginning to end it was my book. They produced a superb cover design then sent me a proof copy of my work to check. It was beginning to look like a book. The manuscript I had lived with for so long seemed to be taking on a life of its own.
I had never written a book before and the competition taught me a great deal. I learned what a slow, frustrating and indescribably satisfying business it is. I also learned that thousands of manuscripts are produced each year. Publishers and agents cannot hope to read them all.
Without the Dundee Book Prize, it is highly unlikely my work would have been considered. This is its real value and for me, it is beyond price.
Practical Skills in Biology (3rd edn)
by Allan Jones, Rob Duck & Jonathan Weyers
Pearson Education
ISBN 0-13-045141-X
The Practical Skills series of textbooks for the life sciences by Jonathan Weyers in the Centre for Learning and Teaching, Allan Jones in the Life Sciences Teaching Unit and Rob Duck in Geography have been translated into a number of languages for students worldwide. Practical Skills in Biology was translated into Chinese, Practical Skills in Biomolecular Sciences into Italian and Practical Skills in Environmental Sciences into Polish. The new editions also deal with general skills such as creating a CV and evaluating information in accord with the recent QAA benchmarks for the biosciences.
Weavers of Tales
Women of Dundee and...Books
Women of Dundee and...Books first met in 1997 with the purpose of providing a social space for women through the medium of words. Since then, the group has featured poets, playwrights and novelists - ‘weel kent’ and little known, national and local.
In 2002 the group held a women’s creative writing competition. The author Isla Dewar kindly agreed to judge the entries, which were guided by the theme ‘Weavers’. Little did she know how difficult the task was to be but she did come up with four worthy winners.
Weavers of Tales showcases twelve of the short stories from the competition.
