ISBN: 978-1-915108-31-9
Publication date: 26 June 2025
Pamphlet, 38 pages.
“…what are debateable lands? Surely no land is ‘debateable’, it simply is. God-gien. A patch o bracken oan a hillside formed by His haun. Mebbe a careless haun. This patch no needin quite as much thocht as anither: Jerusalem, or Mount Sinai, Edina or London. But God-gien nane the less and there, just there, no needin the huff and puff o human argie bargie. But… tae a King… mebbe yon lands are debateable.”
Esther is a play/lyrical monologue in the ‘voice’ of the Renaissance Scottish calligrapher, Esther Inglis (c1570–1624). In Scots that is authentic, earthy, and literary, David Kinloch – through Inglis – brings the early 17th century to life, and reveals how matters of art, calligraphy and authorship are riven with both personal and political significance. Kinloch asks important questions concerning power, authority, prejudice and self-determination that still remain vital and provocative. He succeeds in presenting Inglis as an engaging and ground-breaking presence in a society filled with barriers, a pioneer who deserves to be remembered and celebrated today.
Esther by David Kinloch
To be a calligrapher, you must know pink. You must be pink. The matter is a nice one: for the word pink or pinke (with an ‘e’) is also used to describe a yellowish pigment, which is mixed with blue colours to yield greenish colours. Grasse-green is made of pink shadowed with indigo. Pink yellow is amongst the chief yellow pigments and you must mix it with either saffron or ceruse for “sad” or “light” shades thereof. Pinks are but the tiniest of flowers, mere ornament in the making of a buik and yet they speak in their small voices to the complexity of this art.
[pause]Tae the pink daurk o this hale warld.
*
I niver had a gowden pen! Nivver! I tried hard tae get one richt eneugh. But the siller I get in exchange fur ma wee buiks fae aw yon lairds and leddies is juist eneugh tae keep us oan the far horizon o the court. A wee boat wi juist me and Bart in it, a wee paper coble made o wavy lines, o wavy hauns balin oot the watter that pours in juist as fast as I can scrieve! He would stairve without me... Though ye may be sure yon is no the story he tells.
David Kinloch is from Glasgow where he grew up and was educated. He is the author of six collections of poetry, most published by Carcanet Press, the latest being Greengown: New and Selected Poems. In 2022, David received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in recognition of his contribution to poetry.