Shifnal author explains what should happen to 'forgotten Scots' artefact 'Book of Deer'
To the Scots, it is an iconic artefact of cultural heritage, a gem from early nationhood - a sort of literary Stone of Destiny.
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
It is the Book of Deer, one of the great Celtic illuminated gospels, written by an unknown monk some time between 850AD and 1000AD and celebrated as one of the principal antiquities of Celtic Scotland and as a Celtic work of art.
And it's in England. At Cambridge University Library, in fact.
But what if, at a pivotal moment in modern Scottish history, a dour and disillusioned Glasgow librarian nicks it and takes it back to its homeland?
It is the premise of a novel by James Christie which weaves in echoes of Raiders of the Lost Ark and a character from the works of famed Scottish author John Buchan, best known for the spy thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps.
"I do rather think it could be turned into a lucrative Netflix serial in the wake of Outlander," said James, who was born in Wolverhampton in 1964, but lived in Scotland for over 50 years. He has lived in Shifnal since 2020.
It all began when he was working at a Scottish stately home as a rare books cataloguer. One day in about 1994 he came upon a Victorian reprint of the Book of Deer, which takes its name from a monastery which was at Deer, Aberdeenshire.
