Laura Hird

When novelist Laura Hird left Edinburgh for university in the late eighties, her mother, June, wrote to her regularly. Her letters – witty, entertaining, and scathing where appropriate - were often read out to Laura’s friends and earlier this year were collected in Dear Laura. This evening, on the eighth anniversary of June’s funeral, Laura reads from the book.  June, lacking self-confidence in her writing despite her talents, would have been proud.

Although she excluded some letters from the book on the basis that they were too personal, Laura does not censor the many references to the stroppy teenager she once was: the gentle digs at her inability to do chores; the long mornings in which she stayed in bed “like a beached whale”; the beautiful letter from Laura that moved her grandmother to tears, which had actually been written by June since Laura could not be relied on to do it. There is much good humour in these letters, and it’s clear that the two had a special bond. A poem June wrote following her husband’s death (“so many plans still unfulfilled”) ends the evening on a poignant note, but on the whole this event was an uplifting look at one family’s stories.