Dorothy Dunnett Society
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Dorothy Dunnett Society
@dunnettcentral.bsky.social
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The Dorothy Dunnett Society. Literary society and registered charity promoting the works of Scottish novelist Dorothy Dunnett and historical research.
For more information on Dorothy Dunnett and her work, please visit
https://dunnettcentral.org
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A bumper WG is on its way to members: 52 pp (8 colour) including a talk by the Head of Maps at the National Library of Scotland; a project to catalogue notebooks from the Dunnett Archive; armour in C15 Bruges; retelling Macbeth; second part of priests and prophets; and Lymond and Strozzi in Calais.
Cover image (historic map of Scotland and France) of Whispering Gallery 168.
November 28, 2025 at 11:06 AM
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Our weekly #dunnettquote is an example of Dorothy Dunnett‘s funny characterizations
Mr. Crouch, wittily obese like a middle-aged titmouse, sat enthroned on his stomach, giving tongue. Incidents of his boyhood surged to cataclysmic peaks of pointlessness. Episodes from his career in the Princess Mary's household explored tedium to its petrified core. Dorothy Dunnett: The Game of Kings
November 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
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This week‘s #dunnettquote is about travel companionship.
"...The journey, a remorselessly eventful one, took just under three weeks; and after three weeks in Lymond's company - longer than she had ever spent in the whole of her life - even Philippa's iron nerves were vibrating. They were attacked three times in the course of it: once in the forest of Jurthen by the local brigand Long Peter, which they expected; and once crossing the gorge bridge near Nantua, which it appeared only Lymond expected. Because of the size of their cavalcade and its quality, the fighting in both these cases was brief, and they suffered no damage. ..." Dorothy Dunnett, Pawn in Frankincense
November 17, 2025 at 2:40 PM
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Our #dunnettquote of this week accompanies Phelim to the castles on the banks of the Loire.
"...O'LiamRoe could and did alarm with unseemly fables of the Gobbam Saer; but Delorme, god of masons, could reduce him to silence; and the names of Limousin and Duret, of Rosso and del Sarto, Cellini and Da Vinci, Primaticcio and Grolier rose familiarly to his lips. With Robin Stewart sour and Thady discreet behind him, he wandered happily though Castle Aubigny and, next day, through Stewart's other beautiful house on the Nère, touching silverwork and embroidery, admiring paintings, savouring gem-bound books and tapestries, imported tiles and Milanese beds and Florentine marquetry, the frescoes and the grave, Italian marbles. ..."

 Dorothy Dunnett, Queens' Play
November 10, 2025 at 2:48 PM
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In our weekly #dunnettquote Jerott wonders about the use of a spade
"... Gaultier stopped sobbing for breath and said, wheezing, ' How dare you force your way into this house and assault us?'
   'How dare you spring out at me with a spade?' said Jerott mildly,. Or were you going to work in the garden?'..." Dorothy Dunnett: Pawn in Frankincense
November 3, 2025 at 2:37 PM
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This week our #dunnettquote arrives at the port of Trebizond.
„…SO THERE CAME TO the poisonous honey of Trebizond the two vessels from barbarian Europe, the four months of their travelling over, and winter turned into spring. One after the other, they crossed the wide, irregular bay towards the green amphitheatre which lined it. In its midst, the classical City gleamed on its tableland, alight with marble and gold against the dark mountain forests behind. There stood the fabled City, treasure-house of the East. There were the groves that had once known the Argonauts, haunted by legends of sacrifice and redemption: of the tree and the scaffold, of the ram and the lamb each impaled there. There was the frontier of Islam…“ Dorothy Dunnett: The Spring of the Ram
October 20, 2025 at 11:24 PM
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The idea of the rooftop race in Blois is our weekly #dunnettquote
„…By now, they expected something more than his music. He gave them freely an idea which had occurred to him at Neuvy and they embraced it instantly and fell to planning. What he proposed was a race in pairs, from the cathedral hill to the castle, following a route determined by clues which some of the King’s Guards could lay. News of it spread uncommonly fast. By evening, with the Court settled to watch its after-supper wrestling, the Guard alone was seething with it; and Lord d’Aubigny, one of the few men on duty with long experience of such things, was clearly suspicious of the general air of vivacity. An Archer was brought in with a broken leg, and the hilarity increased. The King had not been made aware of the project—a natural precaution in this sort of race. It was Thady Boy’s idea that they should run it at nightfall, over the housetops of Blois...“ Dorothy Dunnett: Queens' Play
October 13, 2025 at 4:55 PM
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This week‘ s #dunnettquote is a hommage to smart Sybilla.
„…He said quietly, “Go on. And the fourth occasion?” For the first time, Sybilla lost a little of her self-command. She said, “Do you know, if you had succeeded then, I think you would have had to answer for it yourself to those same gypsy gentlemen and not to me today. He was on his way to Mariotta when they attacked him … but you knew that, of course. It must have seemed quite fool-proof at last: Romanies can only be controlled by their King. Unluckily for you, their King at the moment is controlled by me. He learned of your commission and stopped it just in time. Richard isn’t dead, Sir Andrew; and I have three men who will swear to having been paid by you to assassinate him…“ Dorothy Dunnett, The Game of Kings
October 6, 2025 at 2:02 PM
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The #dunnettquote of the week takes Mehmet II in focus.
„…Sara Khatun had been with the Sultan’s army now for several weeks, and he had treated her and her entourage of Kurdish and Turcoman nobles with exemplary respect as she had never doubted he would; even to naming her Mother. If she had been, she would have reduced his drinking by half. The prince of twenty-three who had taken Constantinople and (fortunately for her sake) saw himself as a second Alexander conquering a second Darius of Persia, was now a beak-nosed and inflated 31-year-old. A man who spoke Arabic, Persian and Greek and liked gardens, mathematicians, catamites, military strategy and making up excellent poetry...“ Dorothy Dunnett, The Spring of the Ram
September 29, 2025 at 4:22 PM
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The #dunnettquote of the week is about living representatively.
„…The comte de Sevigny was also given land, (…) To enable him to entertain as was now fitting, the crown was pleased to give him also possession of the Hôtel d’Hercule on the corner of the rue des Augustins, Paris. It was one of the great royal mansions of France, and once housed the Queen of Scotland’s young father, twenty years before also a bridegroom. The comte de Sevigny’s friends were not overawed. ‘It’s known as Plumbago Corner,’ said Jerott in a lofty welter of consonants. ‘You have to produce a ticket of entry that says you’ve fought all the statues.’ Jerott was drunk as a Templar and happy. Neither he nor Danny nor Adam had had a care in their heads for a fortnight, other than prosecuting with uninterrupted efficiency all the affairs of their companies and ensuring, under the unwinking supervision of Archie Abernethy, that Lymond was never alone. But then, it transpired that he had no particular desire to be alone,…“ Dorothy Dunnett, Checkmate
September 22, 2025 at 12:46 PM
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The #dunnettquote of the week is about spreading bad news.
LITTLE BOATS CARRYING cherries, or cheeses, or sprats bring the world its bad news, long before the dispatch of solemn embassies. So rumours spread to the marketplace. But before even that, fast-beating pigeons and riders and swift, secret galleys make sure that the world’s leaders know what there is to know, even though they may conceal it. Thus the news of James of Lusignan’s fate crossed the Middle Sea many weeks before the black-robed ambassadors formally presented their tidings to Pope Sixtus and the Republic of Venice, or the Knights of Rhodes and the late King’s half-sister Carlotta, or the Sultan Qayt Bey in Cairo; and long before an arrow borne by a racing dromedary reached a distant Persian battlefield and changed the fortunes of a prince.“ Dorothy Dunnett: To Lie with Lions
September 15, 2025 at 11:39 AM
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The weekly #dunnettquote brings us to the Sorbonne
„Nearly thirty years before, a boy at the Sorbonne, Richard Crawford had hurled river-pebbles over the decorated wall of the Hôtel d’Hercule at the corner of the rue des Augustins. It was then already fifty years old and one of the finest houses in Paris, owned by the Prévôt of the town and his family. When the last du Prat died, it became the palace in which the Crown housed the foreign visitors it most wished to honour. “ Dorothy Dunnett, Checkmate
September 8, 2025 at 1:42 PM
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This week‘s #dunnettquote is telling lies about what you have done in your holidays.
„Peering from under her hood, Philippa favoured Austin Grey with a generous smile and returned to the business of supporting the lies Archie Abernethy was telling. Yes, they had just come back from Malta. Yes, Mistress Somerville had been travelling abroad with a party, including her mother’s friend, Crawford of Lymond.“ Dorothy Dunnett, The Ringed Castle
September 1, 2025 at 12:17 PM
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Whispering Gallery 167: first of a series on priests and prophets; a defence of Sibylla; a first-time visitor to the Dunnett Archive at the NLS describes highlights; two essays on early Renaissance history; our new image-based series on the alchemy scene in GoK; Richard in Perth; Leicester Day.
Cover of September 2025 issue of Whispering Gallery showing Knights of Malta.
August 26, 2025 at 1:45 PM
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The weekly #dunnettquote brings us to #RosslynChapel in construction.
"...The mason's part of the hamlet of Roslin was empty, but the rest of the cabins were full and busy. The Sinclairs created plenty of work, and they had just finished the fair of SS Simon and Jude, which did well, despite Jude's being a hopeless-cause man, without much to say, you would think, to a Sinclair. ..." Dorothy Dunnett: Gemini
August 25, 2025 at 12:12 PM
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Bishop Robert Reid's palace in Kirkwall, Orkney, with the cathedral in the background.
Bishop Robert Reid's palace in Kirkwall, Orkney, with the cathedral in the background.
August 25, 2025 at 8:40 AM
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Members of the board were pleased to hear Anna Groundwater, principal curator of Renaissance and Early Modern History at the National Museum of Scotland, introduce her new book Connecting Scotland’s History by mentioning how DD used Anselm Adorne to show Scotland's connection to Europe.
August 21, 2025 at 3:14 PM
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The #dunnettquote for this week makes a visit in the neighborhood:
„The Culters stayed at home until the third Sunday in December; then, leaving Richard to his inevitable business, the Dowager seized a break in the weather to transport herself, Mariotta and Agnes to visit Sir Andrew Hunter’s mother. Before the gates of Ballaggan, and after they had crossed the Nith safely and dry-shod on its upper reaches, the Dowager rallied her party. “Hear me, children,” said Sybilla. “This is a naughty old woman, but she’s too old to change, and too feeble to be lectured. So speak up, keep your tempers, and remember you’ll be naughty old women yourselves, one of these days.” So they went in and, Sir Andrew being temporarily absent, were taken straight upstairs.“ Dorothy Dunnett, The Game of Kings
August 18, 2025 at 6:21 PM
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This week‘s #dunnettquote is decicated to a notorious traveller in the „House of Niccolò“
"... Father Ludovico concentrated on his food: his mouth was as full as a nesting-box. Behind the mess was a smile.
 John said, 'Nicholas -'
 'No,' said Nicholas for a second time.
 Father Moriz said, 'I think, Nicholas, that you will have to listen. And, very likely, have to go.'
 He did not need to listen. He knew why the Franciscan was here. Ever since the first missions of the Observatine monks to the East, Ludovico da Bologna had travelled the world, from Persia to Tartary, from Rome to Egypt, from Poland to Germany at the bidding of Popes. At the bidding of Bessarion, Cardinal-Protector of his Order. He had lived in Jerusalem for years, and had failed, as Nicholas had, to reach Ethiopia. ..." 

Dorothy Dunnett, The Unicorn Hunt
August 12, 2025 at 2:11 AM
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This week, we are off, hunting with the French court.
"... Erskine wondered if he knew what was ahead of him. He said, 'It'll take God knows what time to get to Blois. You'll go mostly by river, stopping off at lodges and palaces and staying exactly as long as the game lasts in each place. Nothing in this lunatic country matters as much as the hunt. Fifteen thousand people, this man's father went about with, their beds, their clothes and their furniture on their backs, signing state papers on horseback and heralds running after him yearning in couples. They never stayed above fifteen days in one place, unless they were at war, and every ambassador in Europe hated hunting for life.' ..." Dorothy Dunnett, Queens' Play
August 4, 2025 at 1:55 PM
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The weekly #dunnettquote features a well known place in Bruges
Against the later splendours of Spangnaerts Street, the Charetty dyehouse always looked shabby, even though the offices had been rebuilt after the fire they had had, and the house reconstructed for Henninc, and new and better storehouses had risen in place of the old to contain the perennial crates and baskets and sacks, the fleeces and the yarns, the bales of cloth and the barrels of alum, the parcels and parcels of dyes. The smell stayed the same: of wet wool, and queer herbs, and urine. Dorothy Dunnett, To Lie With Lions
July 28, 2025 at 11:54 AM
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The weekly #dunnettquote is about pastimes.
"... They took leave of their hostess and returned to the house of Adorne, where there was nothing to do. Tobie found a book and sat, seldom turning the pages. Nicholas went briefly to his room, but reappeared to sink into a chair before the handsome Sersanders fireplace. ..." Dorothy Dunnett: Caprice and Rondo
July 21, 2025 at 1:20 PM
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This week’s #dunnettquote leads us to the mighty and famous town of Timbuktu
"...He had asked Saloum what Timbuktu was like, but had learned only what he already guessed: that it was a place of trans-shipment; a terminus where the camels, ten thousand perhaps in a train, could rest and feed and take water while the goods they had brought from the desert were moved to the yards of the dealers, and from there to the boats by which they would be dispersed when the floods would allow. A place of seasonal haggling, and gold. What your heart and your soul both have need of, Lopez had incomprehensibly said..." Dorothy Dunnett: Scales of Gold
July 14, 2025 at 1:24 PM
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This week‘s #dunnettquote is about undressing in inappropriate situations…
"...Another scream. 'The fit!' said Lymond.
 The captain strode to the door. Another scream. And another.
 The captain flung the door open. Anxiously, Lymond called. 'If she undresses, I pray you do not restrain her! It can cause untold injury!'
 The captain run out, but did not forget, in going, to close and lock the guardroom door on the two men behind him. Then he fairly raced round the guardwalk.
 It was empty. But over one wall there trailed a fragment of what was once a woman's gauze veil. And on the paved path below, as pallid, he leaned over and sought it, was a crumpled heap which had once been a woman's bright dress, with the marvellous string of baroque pearls still entwined in its folds. Silently the captain turned and made with speed for the stairs..." Dorothy Dunnett: Pawn in Frankincense
July 7, 2025 at 9:41 AM
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The #dunnettquote of the week tells us something about the diet of ostriches.
Tommaso Portinari was not, at the moment, peering into the box where the ostrich stood. He was not, either, inside the box inspecting its droppings. He had not even replaced his jacket with the leather apron which hung from his hands as he stood, his back to a post, contemplating his feet. He looked up, with deliberation. Adversity suited him. He was pale. The dark, ruffled hair, cut round his brow and across the top of his ears, framed the long-nosed antelope face with its fine arched brows and high cheekbones. His expression was one of a man pushed beyond endurance. Nicholas said, "Your boots. It's eaten your boots?" Dorothy Dunnett, Niccolò Rising
June 30, 2025 at 8:30 PM