IN TWO years' time, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Queen Street, Edinburgh, will close for extensive upgrading. If some new paintings were to be commissioned for the reopening, I would like to recommend the following subjects. All of them are still alive – perhaps Recommends' readers have some alternative suggestions to grace the walks of this hallowed building?
1 ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH Equally at home in the friendly warmth of Zebra Drive, Gabarone, and the inhibited chill of Scotland Street, Edinburgh, this benevolent novelist, academic, musician, philosopher and who knows what else be
sides, has done more than most to cheer us up in recent years. He is truly a lad o'pairts.
2 JAMES MCFADDEN Alias Faddie, alias our very own Scarlet Pimpernel. Disguised as a Scottish footballer, he slipped into Paris and stole an important goal from the furious Frenchies. What panache!
3 ALY BAIN Shetland fiddler of very high standing and a legend in the field of folk music both here and across the Atlantic – and well beyond. He would be a worthy successor to Niel Gow, whose portrait I believe to be already in the gallery.
4 ANN GLOAG, OBE This fragile-looking lady was co-founder of the bus company Stagecoach and became the immensely rich châtelaine of Lord Lovat's old place.
The really splendid thing is that she still finds time to use her good nursing skills on hospital ships. Well done, Ann, and whip crack away!
5 ALEX SALMOND You don't have to be a Nationalist (and I am not) to recognise that Scottish politics has been opened up at last and a stiff breeze allowed to blow through its decaying strongholds.
So, hail to our first Nationalist First Minister, Mr Salmond – so cunning and yet blessed with such an "honest, sonsy face!"
The full article contains 306 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
