Edinburgh's fascinating facts

"Ye may talk of Bach and Mozart/Ye may talk of Harold Pinter/Ye may think this town is culture's crown/Have ye been here in the winter?"

Ralph Lownie has ranged wide historically, geographically and communally in his selection of memories and observations of what is in fact two cities, Edinburgh's old medieval town with its castle, closes, wynds - that's alleys to Sassenachs - and courtyards, looking down topographically if not socially on the neoclassical New Town.

Like all anthologies, this is a book to be dipped into, slowly revealing the unique character of this city and its people past and present.

On the way, the dipper will come across delightful insights into, for instance, Scottish Puritanism - the prostitute indignantly rejecting her whistling client, exclaiming "Jist buuton up yer breeks... I'm na going to fornicate the nicht wi' a man who whiustles on the Sabbath!"

Perhaps this book will have little appeal to those who do not know the city, but that leaves millions of Scots and others who have met the many faces of Auld Reekie, who will revel in the wealth of interest in this book.

GORDON PARSONS