An award-winning Edinburgh novelist and Japanese POW camp survivor is the latest author to be commemorated at Makars' Courtyard. The Old Town courtyard, adjacent to the Writers' Museum, takes its name from the Scots word for a poet.
A total of 32 quotations from illustrious Scottish writers, from Sir Walter Scott and Dame Muriel Spark to Sorley MacLean and John Buchan, have been carved into stones in the courtyard.
The newest stone, unveiled at a special dedication ceremony today, is in honour of James Allan Ford CB, MC (1920 – 2009). The inscription, taken from the final chapter of Ford's 1965 novel A Statue for a Public Place, reads:
"Sing out the silence, fill for ever and ever the emptiness"
Paul Scott, past President of the Saltire Society and lifelong friend of James Allan Ford - they were contemporaries at the Royal High School and Edinburgh University - said: "James was a remarkable character. Having survived horrendous experiences in a Japanese POW camp (where his brother was tortured and executed), he wrote five very distinguished novels, the first two on the subject of the POW camp and the final three about Edinburgh."
"However, this was quite a long time ago and I fear the books have been more or less forgotten. No doubt his work will be rediscovered by a whole new audience now that he is being commemorated in Makars' Court."
James Allan Ford was born in Auchtermuchty on 10 June 1920 but was brought up in Edinburgh. He was educated at the Royal High School and the University of Edinburgh.
In 1940, he joined the Royal Scots and served in the Far East where he was captured and held by the Japanese for four years. On release in 1945 he was awarded the Military Cross and returned to Edinburgh where he resumed work with the civil service.
In the 1960s and 1970s Ford wrote five novels. His first, The Brave White Flag, tells of the despairing days leading up to the fall of Hong Kong; two years later he wrote Season of Escape, about the life and death of his brother Douglas who was executed in a prisoner of war camp. This novel won the Frederick Niven Award.
Two of his later novels are about his life in Edinburgh: A Statue for a Public Place and A Judge of Men; his final novel The Mouth of Truth is set in Rome. In retirement, as President of Scottish Pen, he regenerated the organisation. He died on 30 March 2009.
Makars' Court was officially inaugurated by the late lain Crichton Smith in August 1998. The Saltire Society selected twelve writers, ranging in date from John Barbour, who lived in the 14th century, to Sorley MacLean, who died in 1996.
Each writer was commemorated by a quotation selected from his or her work which was inscribed in stone and set in the paving which leads from the Mound and the Lawnmarket approaches to the door of the Writers’ Museum. Twenty other inscribed stones were added between October 2000 and June 2008.
Councillor Deidre Brock, Convenor of the Culture and Leisure Committee, said: "This poignant and uplifting inscription is a very welcome addition to Makars' Court, which is a key landmark on the Old Town tourist trail. Scotland - and not least its capital city - has produced an extraordinary number of accomplished writers and Makars' Court is an excellent way of paying tribute to them and celebrating their work.'