I felt wrongly dressed for An Audience with Diana Gabaldon at Eden Court, Inverness last night.
At the very least I should have worn a scarf in Outlander tartan, or preferably an 18th century frock, supplied by Grantown Museum, like many of the ladies in the packed Empire Theatre.
Although Gabaldon herself doesn’t have a shred of Scottish ancestry, the magic of her historical fantasy Outlander novels have made her a heroine to the very Highlanders whose ancestral history she writes about.
Last night they hung on her every word. It was clear by their interactions throughout the evening that many knew the books and series word for word, inside out.
The evening, organised by the Inverness Outlanders, began with the first ever reading in Scots of the prologue to the first Outlander book, by performance poet, Hamish MacDonald.
This was followed by South Uist singer Gillebrìde MacMillan singing Over the Sea to Skye in English, Gaelic and Scots.
Revelation of new song for next series of Outlander at Eden Court
It emerged during the evening that Gillebrìde, who comes from the same village as Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald, has written a new song for the forthcoming Outlander series 7, still in production.
Author and historian Sarah Fraser (The Last Highlander) compered the evening, beginning by reminding us that Diana Gabaldon has sold over 50 million books in 38 languages in 140 countries.
Gabaldon is currently deep in the tenth book in the Outlander series, and in the early stages of a prequel to the series involving hero Jamie Fraser’s parents—which Sony wants to film, she let slip.
Diana Gaboldon told Eden Court fans of her Doctor Who inspiration
Gabaldon told her audience how she was rather taken by a man in a kilt who appeared in an old Doctor Who programme just at the time she had decided to set her mind to writing.
From knowing nothing about Scotland or the 18th century, this proved the inciting image for everything that would unfold for her over the next thirty years.
She said writing Outlander has been a process of self-discovery, taking several years to write each book, allowing the scenes to come and characters to tell her what’s next.
Although she doesn’t write in a linear fashion, she does know how it all ends, she revealed, and seeing it so clearly made her cry.
But she can’t say when it will happen, to the obvious relief of the audience last night.
Sarah Fraser directed the conversation around the violence of the time, the spirituality of the age, the moral universe in which Outlander is set, the ghosts which are all over the books, and the convenience of time travel.
“Time is a continuum of past, present and future all at once,” Gabaldon said firmly. “History is fiction.”
Her determination to make her books as authentic as possible was challenged early on when she discovered the last trial for witchcraft in Scotland was in 1722, and she was desperate to have a witch trial in her book, which begins more than 20 years later.
Diana Gabaldon expects her readers to immediately believe in time travel
She discussed the problem with her husband Doug, who pointed out that the word fiction would be on the spine of her book.
“He said, OK, so you start out by expecting the readers to believe immediately in time travel… then I realised it was a case of small artistic adjustments.”
Diana read several pages of her new novel to her delighted audience, and fielded questions from fans.
The City of Inverness Pipe Band ended the evening with a rousing rendition of Highland Cathedral much to the approval of the audience.
Eden Court fans felt closer to Outlander author
For Outlander fans, it felt like a fitting end to an evening which had brought them closer to their heroine and adopted Highlander, Diana Gabaldon.
You can find out more about Diana Gabaldon by visiting her website here
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