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A FORMER pub in Renton used to shoot scenes for the remake of the classic film 'Whisky Galore' has been put up for auction. The Central Bar in Main Street was the setting for some scenes in the 2016 version of Compton Mackenzie's 1947 novel, starring Gregor Fisher and Eddie Izzard. Central Bar is now up for grabs A fixture in the centre of the village since the 1890s, the Central Bar has been a well-loved watering hole for many locals since then. But after the coronavirus pandemic devastated the hospitality industry, with most pubs completely closed – or open only on a very rest...

How Keats lives on His radical depictions of desire and oblivion changed the course of English poetry – and, 200 years after his death, they disarm us still. As Jonathan Bate observes, the American critic Edmund Wilson “never allowed his friendship to dull his critical intelligence”. He had been close to F Scott Fitzgerald as a student, but, writing in 1924 about Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, he was unforgiving towards what he saw as its central weaknesses – a lack of energy and coherence, which he attributed to the intertwining malign influences of Compton Mac...

Alan Riach takes a look beyond the titles of two of Hugh MacDiarmid’s most controversial essays. IT was disappointing to read Fintan O’Toole describing the origins of the Scottish National Party like this: “The SNP itself was a strange beast. Its roots lay in a semi-fascist 1930s racialised nationalism.” (‘Nicola Sturgeon’s staunch ally in her push for independence – Boris Johnson’, Irish Times, January 16, 2021). And it was characteristically encouraging to read Joanna Cherry promptly correcting him gently but firmly in the same newspaper. O’Toole’s words, she said,...

"I think it has become,” said Compton Mackenzie, “if I may say so, a kind of folk tale. Rather like Dick Whittington or Aladdin or something. Because it goes on and on… that’s the fantastic thing.” This was how the writer, whose novel Whisky Galore went a long way towards creating that folk tale and exporting it, via a classic Alexander Mackendrick Ealing comedy, to the world, described the story of the wrecking and plundering of the SS Politician when it was lost off Eriskay.  It’s been 80 years since the vessel ran aground and spilled the contents of its Hold Number 5 – n...

© StudioCanal/Shutterstock Sign up for our newsletter and let our nostalgia team take you on a trip back in time Thank you for signing up to our Nostalgia newsletter. Something went wrong - please try again later. Sign Up It is one of the most cherished films in the cinematic canon. But would it have enjoyed such success if the studio bosses had stuck to their original title of Golden Treasure or Liquid Treasure? You might have an inkling of the movie in question from its French nomenclature: Whisky-A-Go-Go. But, after it was released to initially modest reviews alongside Kind Hearts ...