SOME YEARS AGO, I was in Germany, being interviewed by a gentleman from a literary journal. He’d read all my books, and he said, “They’re fabulous! Your narrative drive, your imagery is magic—and the characters…they’re so three-dimensional!”
“Yes, yes,” I thought, “go on…”
Instead, he paused and said thoughtfully, “There is just the one thing—could you explain to me, please, what is the appeal of a man in a kilt?” (Well, he was German. And you know the old saying: “Any man looks good in a kilt. No man looks good in lederhosen.”)
Well…a kilt’s a unique garment. Made of wool from local sheep, dyed with the plants from the Highland mountains, woven by the local weaver, it reflects a man’s sense of himself and his place. He’s a Scot, a…
