Robert Louis Stevenson Day - Paddling Their Own Canoes

The Writers' Museum is hosting a reading for Robert Louis Stevenson Day on Friday 13 November, from 2pm to 3pm. It's being run by the Robert Louis Stevenson Club, and the whole thing is free and unticketed, so you can just turn up.

The afternoon centres on a specific, slightly odd chapter of Stevenson's life. In 1876, he and his friend Sir Walter Simpson set out on a canoe voyage that would become his first travel book, An Inland Voyage. The trip was inspired by John MacGregor's A Thousand Miles In The Rob Roy Canoe, so the pair had similar canoes built and paddled from Antwerp to Pontoise on the outskirts of Paris. By the time they reached the end of the journey, Stevenson had found love in the shape of Fanny Osbourne, who would become his wife. This year marks the 150th anniversary of that adventure, and the Club is gathering for readings to commemorate it.

There's a new edition of Stevenson's Inland Voyage notebook, edited by Richard Dury, which includes material that didn't make it into the published book, so there's a bit of fresh ground to hear. The date also happens to be the author's 176th birthday, so it's a double occasion. If you're in the Old Town on the Friday, it's an easy one to drop into: The Writers' Museum is in Lady Stair's Close, 2pm to 3pm, free and unticketed.