ZITA: did you find it difficult to access the city’s history or the bits that interested you? i can imagine it must have been a huge but interesting research work.
ALISON: yes and no. at first, i just used the usual sources, the libraries, internet, city archives etc. later i started to access social media, and joined several dundee history groups to gain information and memories from local people who used to eat, sleep and breathe jute. this gave me direct access to people who worked in all sectors of the jute industry; from the various apprentices, to spinners, weavers, carders… even dockers and the folk who would work in the offices. everyone’s memories are/were important, and helped me to piece together a picture of how things operated within living memory. once i built up this core of info, i resorted back to just being a bit nosey! if i was out walking, and i happened upon a mill where there were building works happening, i would just ask a worker if it was possible to get some photos inside. they’d then get the foreman, i’d sort of talk my way into it, and next thing you know i’d have an appointment to come back on a saturday afternoon and take (supervised) photos...as long as i brought my own safety boots and hard hat.
when i got braver, i contacted hillcrest housing association about access to one of their larger buildings. their wonderful “upper dens” has been converted into 70+ flats, but i actually wanted into their basement… they were wonderfully helpful, and allowed me supervised access to the basement area, to see the pillars and the oil-stained wheel-pit for the huge steam engines which would have powered the mill. whilst there, i was allowed to tour the rest of the building. then they asked if i’d like to see others! we took a whole day to tour their 8 former-mill buildings scattered through dundee, which was absolutely fantastic!
ZITA: how cool! it's great how helpful everyone was to share these spaces. and was there anything that you particularly loved discovering, or something that really shocked or surprised you about any particular place in dundee that you discovered while researching?
ALISON: what surprised me? hmmm….having volunteered as a machine operator at verdant works, tales of accidents, explosions and deaths didn’t surprise me at all. it was the really random little discoveries that i am surprised by. for example, a couple of the mills had ponds in the basement area… one still reportedly has a small rowing boat in it!
ZITA: fascinating! i haven’t read your book yet - i’m sorry, i missed the pre-orders but i totally want a signed copy when i can buy again please! - but have you set yourself a writing style, have you discovered your own oice while doing this? do you plan to write more?
ALISON: you haven’t got one yet?! shame on you…. haha! since the book happened kind of organically, i just wrote it in the style which comes most naturally to me. i write in the same way i speak; it’s really just a text version of how i would speak to visitors to the museum. i try to be clear and friendly, just like having a chat, rather than a lecture. i am always mindful that despite what i’ve learned, i will never class myself as some kind of expert. i try not to use unnecessary technical language, as i found that quite off-putting when i was researching. sometimes it felt like you needed to be an architect to understand descriptions in the sources i’ve used! i try to keep it interesting, accurate, but understandable. i am aware that not everyone reading it will be local to the area so where i have used local words or terms, i have added a wee glossary at the back to try and help clarify things.
