:''Not to be confused with the Canongate in Jedburgh.''

The Canongate is a small district at the heart of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The main street running through the area is called Canongate without the definite article, "the". Canongate, the street, forms the lower part of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh's historic Old Town. Until formal incorporation into Edinburgh in 1856, Canongate was a separate burgh. The easterly end of the Canongate is sometimes regarded as being in the Holyrood area of the city, with the rest being in the Old Town, rather than being considered an area in its own right.

The Canongate is named after the canons of Holyrood Abbey and the Scots word ''gait'' meaning "road".

As well as the new Scottish Parliament building, which incorporates the historic Queensberry House, the Canongate contains some other notable public buildings, including the Museum of Edinburgh and the People's Story Museum (located in the historic Canongate Tolbooth.) In 1691 the new Canongate Kirk was opened, replacing Holyrood Abbey as the parish church of the Canongate. The church is still used for Sunday services as well as weekday concerts.

Early History

The Canongate owes its existence primarily to the establishment of Holyrood Abbey in 1128. King David I, who established the Abbey, gave the surrounding area to the Augustinian canons then resident at Edinburgh Castle. As part of this process, the Canongate was granted burgh status The area originally covered by the Canongate included parts of Broughton, areas around the Pleasance and part of Leith, which gave the Burgh access to a port.

The royal palace at Holyrood was developed from the 14th Century as successive monarchs made increasing use of the Abbey for political events such as parliaments and royal councils. The royal lodgings were officially converted into a palace by James IV in 1503.

The burgh of Canongate had a turbulent relationship with its neighbour, Edinburgh. The main result of this was a continual battle over the exact boundaries of the Canongate, until unification in 1856.

The Canongate started to decline after the accession of King James VI of Scotland to the throne of England in 1603. The loss of the royal court from the Palace of Holyroodhouse inevitably had an impact of the surrounding area. This was further compounded by the union of the parliaments in 1707 as Edinburgh was the location of the Parliament of Scotland. The building of Edinburgh's New Town also moved wealth away from the area.

The Canongate was an important district during the Scottish Enlightenment with founding of the Canongate Theatre by Lord Monboddo, David Hume and other intellectuals of that era.

Modern Era

The area has seen various attempts at improvements and slum-clearance, including a notable scheme by Sir Robert Hurd completed by 1969 which included some new tenement blocks integrated into the area.

By the 1970s the once overcrowded and poverty-stricken area was starting to suffer from serious depopulation. From the 1980s onwards the Canongate area become notably less industrial, with many of the breweries closing. In the 1990s and 2000s, flats and offices have been built on the former industrial land, reversing the decline in population. While much of this development has a modern appearance, it has been laid out in the "fishbone" pattern characteristic of the Royal Mile.

As of 2006, the redevelopment of the few remaining pieces of industrial land to the north of the Canongate has aroused controversy partly due to the proposal to demolish some of the 1930s replacement buildings.

Above all, the construction of the new Scottish Parliament building on the site of the old Abbey Brewery has led to a resurgence of the area's vitality. For the first time since 1707 the Canongate has again become the centre of Scottish political life.

Education

Royal Mile Primary School is a non-denominational state school that provides primary education for 5-11 year old children. Within the school, there is also a nursery which caters for 3-5 year old children. As the school is so central and historic, its pupils are often involved in illustrious events at the Scottish parliament and Edinburgh Castle. Formerly, the school was known as Milton House Public School and is used as a polling station for the constituents of Edinburgh Central.

The Canongate is also the location of Moray House, the Education department of the University of Edinburgh. It comprises a number of buildings, some of which are historic, whilst others are purpose built. A number of other university buildings including the Pleasance student union building and the Centre for Sport and Exercise are located in the area historically covered by the Canongate.

Trivia

Walter Scott named ''Chronicles of the Canongate'' (1820s) after the area.

The burgh cross now stands in the south-east corner of Canongate Churchyard to the right hand side of the entrance to Canongate Kirk. This previously stood within the road but was transferred to improve traffic flow.

A second market cross stood further up the Canongate to the west. The site of this is marked by a maltese cross in the road surface near the top of St John's Street. This marks the subsection of the Canongate known as St John's which had separate trading rights.

The parish of Canongate also covered Edinburgh Castle, hence a large common grave area for the soldiers at the lower end of the churchyard.

Important Buildings

Canongate Kirk 1691.

Moray House 1625, extended as Moray College of Education.

Lodge Kilwinning 1736, an early masonic lodge, officially "Lodge no.1" attended by Robert Burns.

Chessel's Court, 1745

Morocco Land, a tenement of 1730 bearing the carved upper torso of a Moor.

Shoemaker's Land, a tenement of 1725

Bible Land, a tenement of 1677

Huntly House, from 1517, now Huntly House Museum

Whitefoord House, 1769, now the home of the Scottish Veterans Association.

Queensberry House, 1686, now part of the Scottish Parliament.

White Horse Close, a picturesque courtyard, originally serving the Edinburgh to London coach route, dating from around 1680, restored in 1964.

Famous Residents

Adam Smith

References

External links

The Basil Spence archive — Canongate

Canongate Community Forum — a group concerned about proposed demolition and development on the north side of the Canongate

Edinburgh Old Town Association

Category:Areas of Edinburgh Category:Royal Mile Category:Burghs

James Edmund "Jamie" Byng (born 27 June 1969) works for the independent publishing firm Canongate Books.

Family and education

Byng is the second son of the 8th Earl of Stafford and Jennifer May, brother to the author Georgia Byng and grew up in Abbots Worthy, Hampshire. He was educated at Winchester College and Edinburgh University. While attending Edinburgh University he ran a funk, reggae and rare groove night club named Chocolate City (after the Parliament classic) at The Venue with his first wife Whitney McVeigh.

Publishing career

After graduating, he convinced Scottish publisher Stephanie Wolfe Murray to give him a job at Canongate, then a respected but still somewhat marginalised Scottish company founded in 1973. When Canongate was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1994, Byng, then in his mid-20s, instigated a buyout, aided by his business partner Hugh Andrew, his stepfather (former BBC chairman Sir Christopher Bland) and then father-in-law (co-chairman of the multinational investment bank Salomon Smith Barney). His first move in overhauling the company’s image was to establish the ultra hip Payback and Rebel Inc imprints, dedicated to championing cult authors. The Pocket Canons (1998) published in partnership with Matthew Darby was Byng's first runaway success: selected books from the Bible individually packaged with new introductions by the Dalai Lama amongst others. In the wake of the two-million selling, Booker-winning Life Of Pi, Canongate won Publisher Of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2003, reportedly posting pre-tax profits of more than £1 million for that year.

Byng is the initiator and Chair of World Book Night, an event in which on 5 March 2011 (following World Book Day on 3 March) one million books - 40,000 copies of each of 25 carefully selected titles - were given away to members of the public in the UK and Ireland. It entailed 20,000 "givers" each distributing 48 copies of their chosen title to whomever they choose.

References

External links

The Peerage: The Honorable James Edmund Byng

Interview by Peter Murray

''Time Magazine'' interview: "The Big Byng Theory" by Lauren Goldstein, 27 October 2002

''The Guardian'', "Posh and books" by Libby Brookes, 1 November 2002

''The Scotsman'', "Canongate...I liked it so much I bought the company" by Stephen Jardine, 23 September 2003

''The Times'', "Loose Canon of literary publishing" by Andrew Billen, 10 January 2005

''The Scotsman'', "The mane man" by Catherine Deveney, 23 October 2005

''The Telegraph'', "Barack Obama's publisher: Wild child Jamie Byng" by Rowena Mason, 13 January 2009

''Vulpes Libris'', "Interview with Canongate – Publisher of the Year" by Lisa Glass, 9 June 2009

"Interview: Jamie Byng, publisher" by Chitra Ramaswamy, 6 March 2011

Category:Scottish book publishers (people) Category:Living people Category:1969 births

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Scarlett Thomas
birth date	1972
birth place	England
occupation	Novelist
notableworks	''The End of Mr. Y'' ''PopCo'' }}

Scarlett Thomas, born 1972 in Hammersmith, is an English author. She has written eight novels, including The End of Mr. Y and PopCo, and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Kent.

Biography

She is the daughter of Francesca Ashurst, and attended a variety of schools, including a state junior school in Barking, and a boarding school for eighteen months. During her teenage years she was involved in demonstrations against the Poll Tax, nuclear weapons and the first Gulf War. She studied for her A levels at Chelmsford College and achieved a First in a degree in Cultural Studies at the University of East London from 1992-1995.

Her first three novels feature Lily Pascale, an English literature lecturer who solves murder mysteries. Each of the succeeding novels is independent of the others.

Her literary agent is Simon Trewin at United Agents.

In 2008 she was a member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival jury, along with Director Iain Softley and presided over by actor Danny Huston

She has taught Creative Writing at the University of Kent since 2004, and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London.

She reviews books for the ''Literary Review'', the ''Independent on Sunday'', and ''Scotland on Sunday''.

Scarlett Thomas shares with Ariel, the protagonist in ''The End of Mr. Y'', a wish to know everything:

"I'm very much someone who wants to work out the answers. I want to know what's outside the universe, what's at the end of time, and is there a God? But I think fiction's great for that--it's very close to philosophy."

Her new book, ''Our Tragic Universe'', was published in May 2010 in the UK, and will be published in September 2010 in the USA. It was originally to be titled ''Death of the Author.''

She is currently studying for an MSc in Ethnobotany, and working on her ninth novel, ''The Seed Collectors''

Recognition

In 2001 she was named by The Independent as one of 20 Best Young Writers.

In 2002 she won Best New Writer in the Elle Style Awards, and also featured as an author in New Puritans, a project led by the novelists Matt Thorne and Nicholas Blincoe consisting of both a manifesto and an anthology of short stories.

Novels

''Dead Clever'' (1998)

''In Your Face'' (1999)

''Seaside'' (1999)

''Bright Young Things'' (2001)

''Going Out'' (2002)

''PopCo'' (2004)

''The End of Mr. Y'' (2006)

''Our Tragic Universe'' (2010)

Short stories

''Brother and Sister and Foot'' - Curly Tales series, on Radio 4, August 2005

''Interlude'' - Product Magazine, Winter 04-05

''The Whole Country'' - Zembla Magazine, Summer 2004

''Why My Grandmother Learned to Play the Flute'' - Curly Tales series, on Radio 4, November 2003

''The Old School Museum'' - Big Night Out, HarperCollins, 2002

''Debbie’s Dreams'' - The Stealth Corporation magazine, 2002

''Goldfish'' - Butterfly Magazine, Issue 5, 2000

''Mind Control'' - All Hail the New Puritans 4th Estate, 2000

''Five Easy Ways with Chilli'' - 2008

References

External links

Official website scarletthomas.co.uk

2005 interview in ''3am magazine''

Book Review of ''The End of Mr. Y'' in The Independent

Book Review of ''The End of Mr. Y'' in the Dawn Newspaper

Book Reviews of ''PopCo''

''The Author and The Text'', a lecture given by Scarlett Thomas at the University of Kent

2007 Interview in Bookslut

Review of ''Our Tragic Universe'' in The Guardian

Category:Living people Category:1972 births Category:English novelists Category:English vegans

de:Scarlett Thomas et:Scarlett Thomas it:Scarlett Thomas he:סקרלט תומאס ru:Томас, Скарлетт sv:Scarlett Thomas

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Dan Rhodes
birth date	1972
residence	Buxton, Derbyshire
education	MA in creative writing
alma mater	University of Glamorgan
notable works	''Timoleon Vieta Come Home'' (2003)
spouse	Emmily
children	Arthur
website	http://danrhodes.co.uk/
footnotes	}}

Dan Rhodes (born 1972) is an English writer, possibly best known for the novel ''Timoleon Vieta Come Home'' (2003), a subversion of the popular ''Lassie Come Home'' movie. He is also the author of ''Anthropology'' (2000), a collection of 101 stories, each consisting of 101 carefully chosen words, ''Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love'' (2001), ''The Little White Car'' (2004), ''Gold'' (2007), and ''Little Hands Clapping'' (2010). In 2010 he was awarded the E. M. Forster Award

Following the publication of his second book, Rhodes's frustration with the publishing industry led him to announce his retirement from writing, though he later said, "I haven't really given up. I'm certainly not making any more grand pronouncements. I was just sick of the business and wanted out. Not just the publishers; everyone around me."

Rhodes was included on Granta's Best of Young British Novelists list in 2003, to his own bemusement and frustration, partly because of Granta's selection methods ("It's one thing to judge a writer by stuff they've written, but to judge them on stuff they're going to write is lunacy") but also because some of the others on the list failed to respond to his request to sign a joint statement protesting against the Iraq war.

Background

Rhodes grew up in Devon, and completed an MA in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. ''Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love'' was written at this time. He has held a variety of jobs, including stockroom assistant for Waterstone's, barman in his parents' pub, and a teacher in Ho Chi Minh City. He has also worked on a fruit and vegetable farm.

Bibliography

Collections

''Anthropology: And a Hundred Other Stories'' (2000) ISBN 1-84195-614-7

''Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love'' (2001) ISBN 1-84195-613-9

Novels

''Timoleon Vieta Come Home'' (2003) ISBN 1-84195-481-0

''The Little White Car'' (under the pen name Danuta de Rhodes) (2004) ISBN 1-84195-528-0

''Gold'' (2007) ISBN 978-1841959535

''Little Hands Clapping'' (2010) ISBN 1-84767-529-3

''This Is Life'' (March 2012)

References

External links

Dan Rhodes Official Site

Canongate homepage

Category:1972 births Category:British novelists Category:Alumni of the University of Glamorgan Category:Living people Category:Male authors who wrote under female pseudonyms

de:Dan Rhodes fi:Dan Rhodes sv:Dan Rhodes

Coordinates	°′″N°′″N
name	Ben Brooks
state senate	Alabama
state	Alabama
district	35th
term start	November 8, 2006
preceded	Gary Tanner
succeeded	Incumbent
birth date	August 11, 1958
birth place	Mobile, Alabama
spouse	Kathy
profession	attorney
religion	Christian
party	Republican
alma mater	University of South AlabamaUniversity of Alabama

Ben Brooks is a Republican member of the Alabama Senate, representing the 35th District since 2007.

External links

Alabama State Legislature - Senator Ben Brooks official government website

Project Vote Smart - Senator Ben Brooks (AL) profile

''Follow the Money'' - Ben Brooks

*2006 campaign contributions

Category:Alabama State Senators Category:1958 births Category:Living people