Spirit of Jura – Fictions, essays, poems from the Jura Lodge
In 2007, Jura Distillery renovated the old manager’s house that sits tall and adjacent to the distillery, overlooking Small Isles Bay and the distillery courtyard. The furniture, fixtures and fittings are an eccentric and eclectic mix of stuff that just plain works, right down to the old black typewriter in the lounge/kitchen at the top of the stairs. And within these premises, Jura Distillery sought to create an environment that would enhance the creativity
of those prone to bouts of the stuff – predominantly of a literary fashion in keeping with the island’s George Orwell heritage, but also conducive to those steeped in the visual arts.
The distillery’s partner in this promising venture is the Scottish Book Trust who have established the Jura Malt Whisky Writers’ Retreat Programme, of which this book, ‘Spirit of Jura’ is the first manifestation to reach its expectant public. Consisting of several short stories and poems by such as Liz Lochhead, Kathleen Jamie and Romesh Gunesekera, this is an adventurous and praiseworthy volume that seeks to do exactly what it says on the tin. Sandwiched in the centre of this feast of poetry and prose, is a series of ‘oak gall’ landscape drawings by David Faithfull. According to the accompanying text, oak gall ink was revered by calligraphers and artists for centuries, illuminating the pages of the Book of Kells around 800AD.
‘Spirit of Jura’ is a wonderful little volume that can be dipped in and out of as the mood occurs. None of the essays or stories are so long that the reader need settle down in one of the capacious leather armchairs that inhabit the Lodge, while the contents will provide a taste of the island just warming enough to necessitate a visit. Delightful. brian palmer
Spirit of Jura can be purchased from C &E Roy on Islay or from the distillery shop on Jura
[...] Jura According to Modern Writers This article was posted on Oct 10 2009 I found an interesting article in the Times Online about the Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat programme and the differences between the circumstances Orwell lived and worked in and the writers that join the programme and settle in the Jura Lodge, next to the Distillery in Craighouse. It’s like Clive James wrote in his essay The All of Orwell, “To write like him, you need a life like his, but times have changed and he changed them.” The article continues: “To gauge the truth of this we need only look at the island on which the author’s work concluded. When George Orwell arrived on Jura in May 1946, he was finishing his final novel amid conditions of awesome, bleak monasticism, quarantined 30 miles from the nearest settlement, blasted by gales intended to assuage his tuberculosis.” It’s clear that conditions have changed if you consider the luxurious lodge, comfortably located in Craighouse, next to the distillery and in the heart of the Jura community, an island that is still considered to be one of the most insulated Hebridean islands. I’d like to continue this post with a couple of quotes from the article: For two years now, the makers of the island’s single malt have run the Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat programme in collaboration with the Scottish Book Trust to furnish authors with a nip of what Orwell consumed so deeply during the composition of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Three writers a year are invited to work for a month at the retreat in Craighouse, with a remit that their writing should address, however tangentially, the experience of living on Jura. The fruits of the first two years’ harvests — including works by Will Self, Janice Galloway and John Burnside — are now published in Spirit of Jura: Fiction, Essays, Poems from the Jura Lodge. [...]
Would like some help! I came to Jura in the summer to scatter my Grandfathers ashes, also Duncan Shaw , as this was his wish. He told me this when I was 12, and I never forgot it. Since coming to Jura which was the first time any of my family had been there a whole new world has opened. My grandfathers uncle was Neil Shaw, whom he did speak about, but being the man he was, not in great detail. Since then I have found out about the song he wrote, ( Crossing to Jura ), and would love to hear it. I have just been to Eastern Europe recording some music and layed down some Burns poetry which I have written music to. Anyway I ramble on, will visit Jura again soon, it has profoundly touched me!