The Bagpipes w/ Richard McLauchlan

Join Richard McLauchlan at the Boswell Book Festival as he discusses his new book, The Bagpipes.

About the book

History’s first named bagpiper is a man playing a pipe ‘with a bag tucked under his armpit’ in the first century CE. He was the Roman Emperor Nero. Since then, this improbable conflation of bag and sticks has become the world’s most beloved and contested instrument. Another piping emperor, Tsar Peter the Great, decided that his departed pet bear would live on—as a bagpipe.

This vivid history tells the long story of an instrument boasting over 130 varieties, yet commonly associated with just one, from one country: Scotland’s Great Highland Bagpipe. In fact, the pipes are played across the globe, illuminating societies in remarkable, unexpected ways. Richard McLauchlan charts the rise of women pipers; investigates class, privilege and capitalism in the piping world; and explores how a ‘national instrument’ can shift in meaning amidst the currents of identity.

The vibrancy and inventiveness of today’s pipers showcase the allure of this fabled, fascinating instrument, to which McLauchlan is our surefooted guide.

About the author

Richard McLauchlan is a Scottish writer, educated at the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge. The author of Serious Minds and The Bagpipes, he also collaborated with John Campbell on acclaimed biography Haldane(all published by Hurst). Richard co-founded the educational charity Light Up Learning.