It’s not that bad

“As a member of Kinnoull Church, Perth, complete with its Millais window and a churchyard containing the graves of Effie and several members of her family, I watched with interest the film Effie Gray on television recently,” writes a Craigie regular.

“All very tastefully done,” he says, “but I was not happy with the typical view of Scotland portrayed in many of the scenes. Most of them showed Effie, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais shivering in the cold, rain and wind, with overcast skies and little sun.

“We don’t have constant sun up here, nor does England or France for that matter. If we did, there would be no green fields, lochs or woods to admire, but we get our fair share of sunshine.

“When my wife went to work in London in the 1950s fresh out of university, she had spent July sunning herself on the beach at Broughty Ferry or in her garden.

“On her first day at work, an English colleague admired her suntan and asked where she got it. When she replied, ‘Scotland’, the Englishman said: ‘Oh, I thought it always rained up there.’

“Judging by the film, attitudes down south to Scotland’s weather have not changed!”