Illustrated author talk on The Scottish World by Billy Kay:

December 12, 6.30pm at the Abertay Historical Society, Discovery Point Dundee.

FORTHCOMING RADIO BROADCASTS:

BBC Radio Scotland 2007 Monday 19 November @ 11.33 repeated @ 2432 and over the next four weeks.

The Mason Word

1. The Mother Lodge

Billy Kay presents a major new four part series on the history of Scottish Freemasonry which has a strong claim to be the spiritual home of a world wide brotherhood numbering close to 6 million people. Along with freemasons and academic historians from Scotland and the United States, Billy will explore the craft's early history among the country's medieval stonemasons, revealing and dramatising their rituals. He will also examine why, from the 17th century onward, non-stonemasons and gentlemen were sufficiently intrigued by the mason'slore, that they transformed the craft into the Freemasonry that took off round the world in the 18th and 19th centuries.

An Odyssey Production for Radio Scotland

The Mason Word Monday 26 November @ 11.33 repeated @ 2432

2. 'The Mystic Tie'

The mystic tie, according to Robert Burns was the bond experienced and shared by brother masons. Billy Kay reveals that as freemasonry took off in the 18th and 19th centuries, many of the great men of European culture were drawn to the craft - Mozart, Sibelius, Goethe as well as Scottish icons like Sir Walter Scott and James Boswell. We shall celebrate the cultural legacy of Freemasonry and hear of the conviviality that arose out of the harmonies enjoyed when the formal part of the evening was over.

An Odyssey Production for Radio Scotland
The Mason Word Monday 3 December @ 11.33 repeated @ 2432

3. The Scottish Rite

Billy Kay continues the story of Scottish freemasonry, travelling to Fredericksburg Virginia home of the lodge of Scottish tobacco merchants who initiated George Washington into the Craft. He also visits Washington DC where the White House and the Capitol Building were built by Edinburgh stonemasons and freemasons who were among the founder members of the prestigious Federal Lodge No 1 there.

An Odyssey Production for Radio Scotland

The Mason Word Monday 10 December @ 11.33 repeated @ 2432

4. 'We Met Upon the Level'

In the final programme in the series Billy Kay confronts issues like sectarianism and conspiracy theories regarding freemasonry and look for possible origins., while we hear of persecution against Freemasons from Nazi Germany to Stalin's Rusia. We also hear from Freemasons about the inclusive nature of the brotherhood, its work for charity and the morality it teaches… all of which means that for many of them, after their families, it plays the most important role in their lives.

An Odyssey Production for Radio Scotland

All of my radio programmes can be heard live on the internet and for a full week after broadcast by logging on to the BBC Radio Scotland website and using their Listen Again facility. Go to Features and look for the titles listed above.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/

Further information:

> Billy Kay website

> Link to Billy Kay Profile

Image courtesy of Billy Kay. 

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