With My Own Hand: in conversation with Ashley Douglas
Join us at The Harbour Chapel in Dunbar on Thursday, 10th September at 7.30 pm.
We'll be in conversation with author Ashley Douglas, discussing her book With My Own Hand: The Secret Life of Marie Maitland, Scotland’s sixteenth-century Sappho.
The event will include an interview and Q&A with Ashley Douglas, followed by a book signing.
Order a copy of the book via this page for free entrance to the event.
Alternatively, please select an 'entrance-only' ticket.
About With My Own Hand:
The youngest of the Maitland siblings, Marie had watched her elder sisters be married off one by one, destined to take up the unavoidable path for women in sixteenth-century Scotland. However, as she neared marrying age, her father, an influential judge, poet and Keeper of the Privy Seal under Mary, Queen of Scots, went blind and suddenly needed someone to act as his scribe and secretary.
In taking up this role, Marie indeed avoided the unavoidable, dedicating her life to her father's work. After his death, she put the finishing touches on the Maitland Quarto, long recognised as significant for its preservation of the poetry of the male great-and-good of sixteenth-century Scotland. A rare feat for a woman at the time, but Marie's story doesn't stop there.
For hidden in the pages of the Maitland Quarto, historian and translator Ashley Douglas discovered Marie's own secret lesbian love poetry. Penning such poetry in the hostile climate of post-Reformation Scotland, with its suffocating tightening of moral control over society, was an incredible act of bravery. Unable to sign it directly, Marie, insistent on her voice and love being known, littered the manuscript with clues to its true penmanship.
Clues that, until now, have remained unseen. Building on her initial discovery of Marie's poetry, in With My Own Hand Ashley Douglas draws on a vast range of newly unearthed primary historical records to tell the fascinating story of Marie and her manuscript, in full, for the very first time.
Hardback, 304 pages, publishing on 16th July 2026.
About Ashley Douglas:
EVENT DETAILS:
Please note, copies of With My Own Hand will be available for collection/delivery around publication day, 16th July 2026.
Please select 'local pick up' at the checkout if you would like to collect your copy/copies from Night Owl Books, or at the event. Alternatively, please select a Royal Mail option and we'll post your book(s) to you.
Event times:
The Harbour Chapel bar will be open for attendees from 6.30 pm.
Event: 19:30 - 20:30, followed by signing.
Doors: 19:15.
Venue information:
The Harbour Chapel, 10 Victoria Street, Dunbar, EH42 1ET.
FAQs
- Will I be sent an e-ticket before the event?
Please note that we will have a guest list on the door on the night of the event, and you will not be sent an e-ticket for it - simply let us know your name/the name of the person who booked your ticket when you arrive, and we'll check you in!
- Can I collect my book at the event?
Copies can be collected on the night at the event, or alternatively if you would like to read the book before attending copies can be collected or posted to you in advance. Copies will be available for collection/delivery around publication day, 16th July 2026.
A note on Covid precautions: if you feel unwell on the day, please err on the side of caution, and please take a lateral flow test before attending, if you can.