RSGS Inspiring People Talk: Jo Sharp & Val McDermid: Darién: This Door of the Seas

Professor Jo Sharp and Val McDermid are coming to The University of Edinburgh on Wednesday 20 January, as part of the RSGS Inspiring People talk series. They'll be in conversation with BBC Special Correspondent Allan Little, and the whole thing centres on This Door of the Seas, the book they co-wrote in 2026.

If the title doesn't ring a bell, the story it's based on almost certainly will. It's a novelisation of the Darien Scheme, that 1698 attempt by more than 2,500 Scots to set up a trading colony across the Isthmus of Panama. It's one of those moments in Scottish history that still gets talked about, and the book frames it as a series of letters from Dr James Wallace to his wife and to the first Geographer Royal, Sir Robert Sibbald. Sharp and McDermid bring two very different perspectives to the collaboration: Sharp is the Geographer Royal for Scotland, and McDermid is a bestselling author, so you've got the academic and the storyteller working from the same set of letters.

Joining them on the day is Allan Little, the BBC Special Correspondent who actually visited Darien in 2014, so he can talk about what the place is like on the ground rather than just from the archives. Between the three of them, the talk should cover the history of the scheme, the research that went into the book, and the reality of the Isthmus of Panama itself.

It runs from 2:15pm to 3:45pm at the University's Old College on South Bridge (EH8 9YL). Tickets are £15 for general admission, and free for RSGS members, students and under-18s.