In reply to simondgee:
I have two biographies of Norman Collie: the one by Christine Mill (1987), and also an earlier (1973) Canadian one, ‘The Snows of Yesteryear’ by William C. Taylor. They are both good, but the slightly more detailed one by Mill, being by the Aberdeen University Press is drier and more academic in tone, while the one by Taylor is more enjoyable and, I think, better written. It is somehow more human and brings the reader closer to Collie, while at the same time not being a hagiography of any kind. Also, the black and white pictures are better reproduced in the Canadian book and the page layout and design is much more attractive. There are lots of nice details, particularly in the closing chapter ‘The Later Years’. He did very important work in organic chemistry, being the first to suggest the formula for benzene, ‘which was familiarly known in the laboratory as the “Collywobble”.’ He also made the comment ‘"If anyone happens to write an obituary for me, I want two things said – I first discovered neon and I took the first X-ray photograph.” For neither of these has he received full recognition.'
Also, quite inexplicably, the very humorous drawing ‘Ascent of Sgurr Alasdair: “The professor saving his party.”’ and the wonderful cartoon of him – “The Old Man” by E.W.Twining – are both inexplicably omitted. The maps in the Canadian book are also better.
I see that there is a copy of ‘The Snows of Yesteryear’ available on Amazon. — Oh, and several dozen!! on Abebooks.
A particularly wonderful picture in The Snows of Yesterday is a double-page spread of Collie, Hastings and Slingsby (no less) entitled ‘A quiet Sunday indoors at Glenbrittle Lodge, Skye’, Undated, but probably taken in the late 1880s. A pity I can’t scan and show it to you, but that would be breaking the copyright laws.
Post edited at 09:40
