Edited by Frank R. Shaw, FSA Scot, Dawsonville, GA, USA
Email: jurascot@earthlink.net

I’ve introduced Dr. Kenneth Simpson to you on several occasions, but you probably are not aware that Ken retired a few years back, and I’ll leave it to you to decide if that description fits after reading more about him. For instance, this fall he becomes the first BARD Visiting Professor of Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow’s Dumfries Campus. He was one of the featured speakers at the Dumfries Burns Conference in July and will speak at the approaching Burns series to be held at The Mitchell Library in Glasgow. Professor Simpson is co-editor of a forthcoming collection, Robert Burns and Friends, of newly-written essays honoring Dr. G. Ross Roy of the University of South Carolina. Ken is also collaborating with Dr. Roy on editing the letters written to Robert Burns, a long-term project now to be included in the new Glasgow/Clarendon collected edition of Burns.  Articles like this one are constantly popping up all over the place. Does this sound to you like a man who is retired? My thanks to Dr. Patrick Scott from the University of South Carolina for updating me on Dr. Simpson’s current activities.

Co-author Dr. Lorna Ewan is new to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! and is currently Head of Interpretation for Historic Scotland. She runs a team responsible for interpreting 345 Properties in Care which include prehistoric sites like Skara Brae in Orkney, Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle and the Border Abbeys.  She has a particular interest in Burns which has evolved over the past 25 years as part of her career in the interpretation of sites and subjects throughout Scotland, the rest of Britain and further afield. Specific Burns projects have included the scripting and production of audio visual programs about Burns for the National Museums of Scotland and the implementation of interpretative displays at Burns Cottage in Alloway, as well as a range of research projects relating to the poet and his work. It is an honor to have Dr. Ewan as a guest.

Credit is given to Crown Copyright Historic Scotland (www.historicscotlandandimages.gov.uk) in association with this article written for the Friends Magazine as well as to publisher Think Scotland, Glasgow. My deepest appreciation to Sean Conlon, Assistant Photographic Librarian of Historic Scotland, for his assistance.  (FRS: 09.10.09)

All Hail Thy Palaces and Towers
By Drs. Kenneth Simpson and Lorna Ewan

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