The Private World of Cammo

By Simon Baillie, Clink Street Publishing

It’s been said that curiosity kills the cat.

Well, for Simon Baillie that is certainly not the case, as if it hadn’t been for his curiosity then The Private World of Cammo would not have been written and that would have been a great tragedy.

Baillie came across the remains of Cammo house in the outskirts of Edinburgh in 1989 upon a walk within its grounds and his interest was immediately sparked in uncovering the history of this mysterious estate. Through his research, he became acquainted with the former occupants of the estate: the long-deceased Tennent family and gradually discovered the secrets of Cammo.

In The Private World Of Cammo, Cammo house plays centre stage in Baillie’s exploration of its rich past from the 1600s to the present day. If the house is the centre stage of this production then the Tennent family are its leading stars. The previous owners and residents of Cammo, the Tennent family’s tale is one of riches to rags filled with betrayal, scandal and loss.

If you pick up this book, which I highly recommend you do, you will be forgiven for thinking that the history of the Tennents is one of fiction, because at times it is almost unbelievable, the tribulations and conflicts that tore through this single family. Fortunately, for the sake of our own entertainment – if not for that of the family itself – it is all true and dutifully retold in all its glory by Baillie.

The rise and fall of the Tennent family and Cammo is intricately portrayed with the help of letters, documents and, more powerfully, through photographs that are woven throughout the book. As the photographs demonstrate, the once grand Cammo House turned into the kind of film set that Hitchcock could only have dreamt about.

When you’re left to grapple with the reality that such grandeur fell into such disarray, readers will feel the alarming loss of this historical landmark, arguably even more so when they learn the reason behind it.

It is quite a brief documentation for such a rich historical narrative but nonetheless it is a fascinating piece of social history.

After all, how often do we hear people say:“If only these four walls could talk”? Well, thanks to Baillie, those of Cammo Hall most certainly do and what a story they tell...

Review by Emma Reekie.