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wanted professional Scottish Tourist Guides so I approached Anne and asked her about becoming a Scottish tourist Guide.
‘She put my name forward and I was accepted onto the course which cost £100. I studied, went to the lectures and followed everything that was going on. While I was doing this, I worked as a relief driver doing City tours with some of the best guides that there were at the time. People like Archie Roy and his wife Maureen Roy, Isobel Lennie, Jimmy Hay, Archie Syme and Tommy Patterson taught me a lot about Edinburgh and I also learned some things that I did not know about other parts of Scotland while driving coaches to various places.
‘When I received my Blue Badge and became a Scottish Tourist Guide I was asked to do some city tours for Archie and Maureen and I enjoyed chatting to people from other countries and created my own style of guiding which was more entertaining than giving the groups facts and figures. I found that slightly risqué stories went down well with the older groups but the young ones wanted Blood and Guts stories.
‘I remember one student group back in 1995 who were bored from listening to their teachers droning on about history and dates. I was to take them to Edinburgh Castle and while standing on the Esplanade waiting for the teacher to get the tickets I started to tell them about the front of the castle and the statues of King Robert the Bruce and William Wallace.
‘As soon as I started I noticed that they all seemed to go into a state of blankness. There was no interest there and I thought I am wasting my time but chose to continue and add a bit of colour to the story.
‘Getting to the end of the tale I changed the truth for some excitement and rather than just say he was executed I explained in graphic detail with actions how he was hung by his neck till he was almost dead, then he was cut down and had whisky poured down his throat to revive him. When he started to cough and splutter they cut him open right down the middle and drew out his innards and boiled them in front of him while he was still alive and then just to finish him off they cut his head off and placed it on a spike. By then he was dead but his memory lives on. I looked round at the group and there were a few green faces and lots of interest. I had that group eating out of my hand for the rest of the tour. It was a great feeling and something that I was proud of.
‘One of the things I have that has helped me in my career is a loud voice and the way of using it to bring stories to life. Another time with an elderly group I had just left the Castle and was going to turn into George IV Bridge and we were held up just around the corner so I decided to tell a long-winded story of Greyfriars Bobby. By the time I had reached the statue there was not a dry eye on the coach, even the driver was busy wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
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