Tomorrow Elephant

The Independent has a nice article on Finnish literary history, which draws some neat parallels with Scotland.

Late-summer festival time in a handsome city of the North, and a lone piper is wheezing doggedly outside a famous department store. After the slow twilight, crowds stroll (or, in a few cases, sway) to and from a grand fireworks display. The day before, I’ve met a bestselling crime writer whose avidly-followed series of mysteries use a troubled ‘tec to unmask the secrets of his society.

Yet we’re on the 60th parallel here, not the 56th; in Finland, not Scotland. The piper outside Stockmann of Helsinki is indisputably female (not often seen near Jenners of Edinburgh); and, unlike Ian Rankin, the local king of crime still serves, as he has for 34 years, with the city police.