The great industries that made modern Scotland are rooted in traditional skills, ingenuity and natural inventiveness that helped shape the world of engineering and technology. This book by folklorist Margaret Bennett is based on an oral history project recording the working practices, conditions and experiences of retired engineers. With wit and humour, as well as pride in a job well done, they relate skills that were once taught to every engineering apprentice.
‘The book brings back memories of the experiential and intergenerational learning we got as apprentice engineers. Every detail from the idea to the finished product was worked out, recorded and planned before being assembled and proved – and if a job was worth doing, it had to be done well. I enjoyed the book immensely and take my hat off to the Melville-Brodie engineers and to Margaret Bennett for giving voice to their history.’
Hughie Donaldson (former marine engineer)
Highlands and Islands Enterprise, 2015
 | Margaret BennettMargaret Bennett is a folklorist, writer, singer and broadcaster. She grew up in a family of tradition bearers, Gaelic on her mother’s side and Lowland Scots on her father’s. School years were spent in Skye, Lewis and Shetland, where her father worked as a civil engineer. In 1965, while she was a student in Glasgow, her father emigrated to Canada, to take on an engineering job in a remote part of Newfoundland. Sharing his keen interest in the development of remote communities and the adaptation of new skills to improve living standards, Margaret emigrated to Newfoundland in 1968. She studied Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, after which she spent a year in Quebec as a folklorist for Canada’s Museum of Civilization. From 1984 to 1996 she lectured at The University of Edinburgh’s School of Scottish Studies and now teaches part-time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Described as “wearing her scholarship lightly”, she is a prize-winning author, and has featured on media productions and several musical collaborations with her son, Martyn Bennett (1971-2005), including the National Theatre of Scotland’s acclaimed production, Black Watch. Her awards for contributions to literature, folklore and culture include an Honorary Doctorate of Music (Glasgow, 2010), ‘Le Prix du Québec’ (London consulate, 2011) and Honorary Professor of Antiquities and Folklore at the Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh, 2012) |