Jennie Lee

I grew up in the former coal-mining town of Lochgelly, Fife. One of its most famous citizens is the politician Jennie Lee (1904-1988), who was instrumental in founding the Open University in the 1960s, thus making higher education available to a wider spread of people. Ground-breaking schemes ran in the household as she was married to Welsh Labour MP Nye Bevin, the father of the National Health Service. A play about her life has been written and we caught Tomorrow is a New Day at the Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline. The show had premiered the previous week at Lochgelly Centre and my mum sent positive feedback.

The historic Dunfermline theatre (opened in 1937) was more than half full for the first performance of a two-night stand. Three actors played all the required roles. Kit Laveri and Trish Mullin were around three decades apart age-wise, in order to convince as the young firebrand Jennie and her more mature counterpart, who share imaginary encounters during the course of Matthew Knights script. George Docherty took on a multitude of male roles which encompassed a wide array of accents across the class barriers. A miner's daughter, Lee was born in Lochgelly and educated at Beath High School (my alma mater), where she was Dux, an award bestowed upon my mother in 1962. Lee spent part of her childhood living at the Arcade Hotel in Cowdenbeath, an establishment run by her mother Euphemia Greig. It provided lodgings and simple meals for travellers and local workers, as well as hosting touring theatre companies and concert parties who performed at the nearby Arcade Theatre. The derelict remains of the latter inspired the stage set for tonight's production. Lee inherited her father's socialist principles as a teenager. James Lee chaired the West Fife branch of the Independent Labour Party. Gaining a place at Edinburgh University, where she studied law and education (half her fees being met by the Carnegie Trust Fund), Lee worked as a teacher in Fife before standing as a Labour Party candidate for the North Lanarkshire by-election in 1929. She was duly elected at the age of 24 - the youngest ever female MP. Only women aged 30 and above could actually vote at the time! Lee lost her seat in the 1931 General Election and married Nye Bevan two years later - a former miner who was a tremendously popular Welsh Labour MP, who held the Ebbw Vale constituency from 1929 until his death from cancer in 1960, aged 62. The play covered all the significant events of Lee's personal and political life, against the backdrop of national and world events. George Docherty was called upon to portray many figures - including Winston Churchill. I awarded the overall production a solid 8/10. Certainly worth seeing, especially if you have a strong interest in political and/or Fife history. The ticket price of £14 was very reasonable.

The story also touched upon the theme of people leaving their socialist ideals behind once major career success has been achieved. While it's true that Jennie Lee rose from humble beginnings to enjoy an affluent lifestyle, she spent many years campaigning for a fairer society. After the war, she stormed back into parliament, holding the Cannock seat in Staffordshire from 1945 to 1970. Lee was appointed as Minister for the Arts in 1964, the first incumbent of the post. This role led directly to her crowning glory, the formation of the Open University. It was intended as a correspondence institution, reaching out to those who had been denied the opportunity to study. Broadcasting media would also be used to deliver courses. Granted its Royal Charter in 1969, the first batch of students signed up the following year. More than two million people have achieved their learning goals with the OU since its inception and there are currently around 200,00 enrolled, including 8000 from overseas. The university is also the biggest provider of education to people with disabilities. The open admissions policy allows many people to achieve ambitions they may not have had the opportunity to fulfil elsewhere. Following the election defeat in 1970, Lee was made Baroness of Asheridge. Two Open University buildings bear her name, as does the public library in her native Lochgelly. I remember learning about Jennie Lee at primary school but was too young to grasp the true significance of her achievements. Tonight's play helped solidify my knowledge.

Exhibition on Screen

Everything is publicised on social media these days, isn't it? That's how we found out about events in our area. There's certainly a lot of truth in that statement. But old-fashioned print newspapers can still be a valuable source. I buy the Times every Saturday and I was leafing through the arts supplement when I noticed an article about current London exhibitions. The National Gallery is hosting Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, a selection of the Dutchman's spectacular paintings. The writer recommended that those unable to travel to London should try and catch the cinema broadcast of the exhibition. I discovered online that a single screening was scheduled at the Dunfermline Oden in three days time.

I'm well aware of the trend to show major stage productions in picture houses nationwide. And why not? The technology is available and we might as well use it to transport culture beyond the host city. But this was the first time I'd encountered the prospect of an exhibition on screen. I surmised the paintings would be shown, along with commentary by experts, and perhaps interspersing elements of the artist's life story. Which was pretty much bang on the money! The National Gallery extravaganza is Britain's biggest ever gathering of Vincent Van Gogh artworks, described as a once in a century experience. The man is one of the most beloved artists of all time, but often misunderstood. His paintings sell for tens (or even hundreds) of millions of dollars, yet he achieved only modest success during his lifetime. There are many tales of mental illness, alcoholism and, of course, the infamous incident where he cut off part of his ear. He took his own life aged just 37, yet produced a vast body of (later highly acclaimed) work in his final few years. Poets and Lovers focusses on Van Gogh's time in Arles, a town in southern France. He moved there from Paris in 1888 and embarked upon a highly productive spell in his new surroundings. My mum fancied coming along and I decided to buy tickets on the night as I could see on the website that just a handful of seats had been sold. That turned out to be a mistake as it cost an extra £2.50 from the self-service machine in the cinema foyer, compared to booking online. Lesson learned. In truth, I couldn't actually remember the last time I'd been to the Odeon. For me, it's an activity that fell away after the pandemic. After a quick coffee at Costa, wandered into the auditorium and could basically take our pick. I counted 12 people in attendance by the time the film started. A shame that an event like this can't attract more people but as Mum rightly pointed out, it's a niche market. Well, I now understood by only one showing had been scheduled. Across two years in the south of France, Van Gogh revolutionised his style in a symphony of colour and texture. He was inspired by poets, writers and artists. His desire to tell stories produced a landscape of creative imagination and romantic love on an ambitious scale. The artist turned the world around him into vibrant, idealised spaces and symbolic characters. Among the works featured in the exhibition are Starry Night over the Rhône’(on loan from the Musée d’Orsay), Yellow House’ (Van Gogh Museum, pictured below) and the National Gallery's own Sunflowers from 1888. The film was made in close collaboration with the exhibition curators and contained extensive contributions from those who had helped put the show together. I enjoyed the input from Scottish artist and TV presenter Lachlan Goudie, who pointed out that even a master craftsman such as Van Gogh was weak in certain areas, and obviously very strong in others. However, I couldn't figure out why one expert, who sounded as if she might be from Germany or the Low Countries, continually pronounced Van Gogh's surname to rhyme with bread dough. I thought it was only Americans who did that.

Obviously a movie theatre can never truly replicate the experience of absorbing iconic artwork in person. Had the exhibition been running during the summer months, I would surely have seen it during the course of my annual London trip. The cinema version gave me a flavour of the master's work, for less than twenty quid. It was nice to hear a breadth of opinion from the commentators and I learned a lot about Van Gogh's Arles period and his painting skills in general. Naturally the narrative delved into his personal life and excerpts from several letters to younger brother Theo (an art dealer) were read out. Hundreds of these paper documents survive and are in the custody of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Many were written in French and he often annotated the pages with simple pen sketches or, occasionally, detailed coloured drawings. Vincent also sent formal artwork to Theo. The brothers had agreed that in exchange for providing Vincent with a monthly allowance, Theo would receive the creative output and attempt to sell it. A key message of the film was that Van Gogh was far from the frenzied wildman of popular lore, daubing paint everywhere. He was instead a thoughtful figure who gave his work maximum attention. Born in Zundert in 1853, the young Vincent had a fairly comfortable upbringing. His father didn't earn a great deal as a minister but the church provided a staffed house for the family. Through spells living and working in the UK and Belgium, Van Gogh became fluent in English and French. As a budding artist, he was based in Antwerp and Paris before the move to Arles. By 1890, his mental health had taken a turn for the worse and he was admitted to an asylum for a while. Van Gogh remained creative until he died the same year from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Theo passed away a few months afterwards.

Abbot House Open Day

Stroll along Maygate in Dunfermline and you can't miss Abbot House in its resplendent pink limewash (applied in the 1990s). The oldest dwelling in the city has a history stretching back to the 16th century and it has survived wars, religious unrest and the Great Fire of 1624. Sitting in the shadow of the mighty abbey, Abbot House functioned as a heritage centre in recent years until a funding dispute led to closure in 2015.

Now happily back in business, a café and giftshop are firmly established on the ground floor. The middle level contains rooms available for hire and recent workshops include origami, herbal wellbeing and chocolate truffle making (yes please!). The upper floor is divided into units for creative small businesses. Major renovation work began in 2019, with help from the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, Fife Council, the Architectural Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland and the Common Good Fund. Grants totalling over £600,000 were awarded with the expectation that the project will be self-sustaining in the years to come. The venue was included on this year's Doors Open Day schedule for Dunfermline and I headed along to view the progress. I am already familiar with the ground floor layout and I proceeded directly upstairs. Like any major building of this age, several extensions and upgrades have been added over the centuries. Likewise, a colourful array of occupants have resided in Abbot House, including merchants and tailors, along with a naval captain, glass stainer and pharmacist. Other uses for the place have been an art school and a doctor's surgery. The Dunfermline Carnegie Trust acquired the whole property in 1948. It is now category-A listed. The principal room on the first floor features a frescoed wall painting (dated to 1571) and part of a tracery window. Upstairs, I viewed the spectacular ceiling mural, painted in 1995 by Glaswegian artist Alasdair Gray (1934-2019), who also found fame as a writer. His debut novel Lanark (1981) is regarded as a Scottish fiction classic. His artwork in Abbot House depicts the history of Dunfermline and its people. The traditional trades were listed and were learn that the Burgh of Dunfermline was in favour of the Covenant (1650) but opposed the union with England in 1707. Meanwhile, serfdom was abolished in Scottish mines at the turn of the 19th century. Weaving was an important local industry and in 1869, a club was formed to help weavers buy their own homes. The scheme grew into the Dunfermline Building Society - the largest lender of this type in Scotland. It merged with Nationwide in 2009. Town or city, the place is always changing.

I wandered by the various craft studios in the attic space - noting that business cards are very much still thing, although they now promote an Instagram page. Old and new promotional tools seamlessly working together. Abbot House has gone through many guises and now seems settled in its role as a long-term community asset. The café has a cloistered feel and there is also outdoor seating in the walled garden. the layout was created in 1995 for a BBC broadcast of Beechgrove Garden - the hit squad, an offshoot of the long-running series where dilapidated formal gardens were given a much needed makeover. The revised design incorporates a herb corner dedicated to Lady Anne Halkett, who resided in Abbot House in the late 1600s. She was a practising apothecary and people flocked from near and far to ease their ailments. Unfortunately the adjacent microbrewery was a victim of the recent closure and no longer trades. Overall, Dunfermline has certainly upped its game since being awarded city status two years ago and there are plenty of events and attractions for locals and visitors alike. Abbot House sits in the shadow of the famous abbey and is a true historic gem.