vivdunstan: Portion of a 1687 testament of ancestor James Greenfield in East Lothian (historical research)
2025-06-10 05:23 pm

Historical squiggles

Staring again briefly at the testament(*) of an ancestor who died in 1591. And very grateful for colour manipulation options to make it more readable. Two pics - part of the original, and part of the colour adjusted version. It's still lots of 16th century squiggles, but at least they are clearer 16th century squiggles!

* sort of equivalent to English probate records. It includes legal matters relating to the estate, and debts. And may include a will if there was one. Also occasionally a detailed inventory of personal possessions.



vivdunstan: Portion of a 1687 testament of ancestor James Greenfield in East Lothian (historical research)
2025-04-06 08:32 pm

Taking stock

After submitting another academic journal paper (wish me luck!) briefly pausing to take stock of others in progress. 4 more in development; all Scottish history; 16th, 17th, 18th & 19th centuries; genealogy & court history, legal history, black history, music history & popular culture. Lots to do!

Researching, writing and submitting these - including dealing with all the *fun* of peer review - as a sole author is *interesting*. But something I enjoy, and will keep doing for as long as I can.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
2025-02-04 09:57 pm

Current reading, non fiction/history

Finished reading a new book about the letters of Mary Queen of Scots last night, Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott. Review to follow soon on my academic blog. Meanwhile, and continuing the literary theme, I’ve started reading about a 1930s book forgery case, The Book Forger: The true story of a literary crime that fooled the world by Joseph Hone. Likely to review that book in due course too.



vivdunstan: Portion of a 1687 testament of ancestor James Greenfield in East Lothian (historical research)
2024-09-02 10:05 pm

Mid website upgrade and historical research

Wish my brain would stop thinking "I'll just look up another 16th/17th century testament (will and/or inventory) to study in ScotlandsPeople" when the website is still down! Hope it comes back ok after its latest upgrade / revamp. And hope it's not as disastrous as some other website revamps inc SP.

To be fair it's not as though I don't have enough existing historical document images on hand to work on. I just perversely want to go to the website - at the worst possible time! - and get more.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
2024-08-09 10:26 pm

Books haul

Here are the three books I bought today in Toppings St Andrews and at the Wardlaw Museum in St Andrews.





vivdunstan: Art work for the IF Archive including traditional text adventure tropes like a map, lamp, compass, key, rope, books a skull, and a sigh referring to grues (interactive fiction)
2024-06-09 07:19 pm

Napier’s Cache

After being offline for years, the play transcript of the ClubFloyd folks playing through my interactive fiction / text adventure game Napier’s Cache is back online. I loved seeing how the players tackled my game. This game was inspired by a true story in my family history, involving mathematician John Napier. It was so much fun to write.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
2023-09-13 09:07 pm

Novel reading

Nearing the end of one novel and looking ahead to my next one. Mexican Gothic is very atmospheric, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Though I will no longer read it shortly before bed at night! The other one looks like an Elizabethan delight.

Two book covers side by side. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and The Ghost Theatre by Mat Osman.