The Dean's Diaries

St. Andrews College is St. Trinian’s for the staff. The dons, deans and support staff (there are no students) provide endless fuel for comic fires, based on Scottish eccentricities. While we might think the English have the market for eccentrics sewn up, Purdie makes the case that the Scottish are nothing to be laughed at.

Everything that goes on at St. Andrews is fair game for a jaundiced smirk:

At the Annual General Meeting, the Dean reports that things began with “the interminable ‘Prayer for Divine Intercession’”, followed by the president’s homily - on lobster cloning. This compared favorably to the AGM of 1656, where swords were drawn, pistols fired and a candelabrum fell from the ceiling, injuring three. After all the cursing and personal attacks, the meeting adjourned to dinner. Just another ritual at St. Andrews.

The book is a collection of five page memos from the Dean’s office, suitable for blogging. They are often broken up by a cartoon from Bob Dewar. They have a lovely rhythm, which I began to appreciate as after dinner speeches. There is a topic, followed tangential references and diversions, interspersed with relevant (for the most part), standalone jokes. One needs to balance the message with the story and both with humour, and so keep the audience’s attention. And Purdie does, both in print and as a highly accomplished – after dinner speaker.

The overall effect is not so much self deprecating, as self flagellating. Everything at St. Andrews is eccentric. From the old school rituals to the Anti-Gravity Lab, everything is subject to ridicule, in a state of appreciative wonderment.

David Wineberg

One might think that Scottish academic humor to be an oxymoron, however this delightful collection of short tales puts that idea to rest. To add to the enjoyment every now and again a cartoon pops up which clearly illustrates the hilarity of the story.

In this highly entertaining book, the Dean of St. Andrew's College in Edinburgh gives a witty and funny account of his eccentric colleagues via entries into his diaries. When they aren't falling down the laundry chutes they are up to other shenanigans, which often made me laugh out loud. I particularly enjoyed the chapter entitled 'Dean on the Phone' as well as the musings on American baseball, the 'Ordynance of 1565' and the comedy of 'misprisions' (mistaking someone for another person), and so many others. The illustrations were an added bonus. I hope the Dean is hard at work on volume two because, I for one, am waiting for more.

Thank you Net galley. I loved this book. It was funny and full of pithy quotable lines. The frustrations, eccentricities and joys of an academic life are captured in good humor and put in perspective, for everyone.

The Dean's Diaries: Being a True & Factual Account of the Doings & Dealings of the Dean & Dons of St Andrew's College By Professor David Purdie Published by Luath Press, 2015

Words fail me when it comes to describing this book, but I shall try, nevertheless.
Imagine the lunacy of the academic staff at Terry Pratchett's Unseen University at Ankh-Morpork combined with the intrigue and scheming of the Byzantine courts, the setting of Hogwarts and add to that an unusual British academic institution which takes itself, its customs and traditions very seriously indeed and then you begin to get some idea of how thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable this book is.
The Dean is long-suffering, intelligent, articulate and determined to preserve the status quo of his somewhat secretive tower of academe, despite the best efforts of some of the more eccentric staff and the menagerie of animals also resident in various departments; we meet Schrodinger the cat, the philosophical Mynah bird, assorted dogs, a Giant Squid and a defrosting Woolly Mammoth. Grace has been known to be said in Latin, but in such a way that it causes theological chaos and you will have to read the whole book to discover what else the Dean has to put up with and how great his damage limitation skills really are.....
I really do hope a sequel is in the pipeline :-)