Emotional Journey

In his first book of prose, Fife-based poet Brian Johnstone explores secrets behind his seemingly conventional, post-war childhood…

- Gayle Anderson

HEADING to meet author BrianJohnstone on a sunny day in StAndrews, I’m tempted to join the queue at the ice cream parlour and buy him a 99. In his recently published memoir, Double Exposure, Brian admits that his post-war Edinburgh childhood was so solidly middle-class he wasn’t permitted to eat ice cream in the street.

He smiles when I remind him of this. “Well, that’s not strictly true,” he corrects me. “We were allowed to eat cones outside when we were on holiday or at the seaside for the day in places like North Berwick, but never, ever on the streets of Morningside. These days, I’m not so tempted by the ice cream but I often eat hot pies al fresco. My mother would be absolutely appalled!”

Brian’s was a happy, baby-boomer childhood. However, under the very conventional surface, he later discovered much that was hidden. Two stunning revelations, coming to light 20 years apart following the deaths of his father and mother, sent the well-known and respected poet on a journey – an emotional rather than a physical one. It was a search to find out more about the parents he thought he knew but actually didn’t; a quest to tell his and their stories.