Two miles to Tynecastle (Apex Publishing), is a book by the Edinburgh author, Andrew-Henry Bowie (born Edinburgh, Scotland, UK August 26th 1973) and is the story of both his turbulent life and his passion for Heart of Midlothian Football Club. It will be released on August 1st 2008.
Two miles to Tynecastle (Apex Publishing), is Bowie’s first book and is both the story of his turbulent life and his passion for Heart of Midlothian Football Club. The book is predominantly set in Edinburgh’s western suburbs and also inside various football grounds, most notably Tynecastle Stadium. The book is written with much humour, yet it is also extremely poignant and often quite tragic. The author said “I wanted the location and details of my part of the world to be the meat and bones of the book: but I want the humour and the tragedy to be its heart and its soul. Where the book is funny, I want people to laugh. Where it is sad, I want people to shed a tear, and maybe laugh again. The funny stuff is often quite tragic and the tragedy has much comedy. I have quite a dry wit anyway so the crossover was a fairly natural progression. Hearts as life, life and Hearts, the two themes just seemed to become spontaneously intermingled and representative of each other”. The cover picture for Two miles to Tynecastle is an early picture of Andrew-Henry Bowie and his older brother Robert (Bobby); one of the books great protagonists and the two brothers are repeatedly locked in a battle of will. Bowie’s portrayal of his brother and his nostalgic view of the 80s in general are two of the book’s great successes.
Bowie’s EH11 corner of Edinburgh provides the setting for Two Miles to Tynecastle, and the author feels it is largely un-tapped in terms of location and character depiction. “Think Edinburgh and people will say The Castle, tartan tammy hats, Hogmanay on Princes Street, scones in Morningside, The Fringe Festival, Rugger at Murrayfield, The Royal Mile and the occasion Rankin or Welsh sourjon down some squalid flat in Leith. Where are Hearts in Rebus? Where is Gorgie in literature? When is Saughton Mains ever on TV? And most of all: where are the kind of people that I know? That’s what makes Two Miles not unique, but indigenous”. As well as Hearts FC, Bowie touches upon subjects such as domestic violence, housing scheme life, school, friendships, relationships, traumas, girlfriends, jobs, housing and social politics. Perhaps the most tumultuous relationship Bowie has in the book is with his beloved Heart of Midlothian FC. He writes “Hearts torture and maim their fans, they goad and mock, ridicule and shock; they squeeze and suck the very will to live out of us Jambos. Yet somehow, and often inconceivably so, they will thrill and woo us, taking us to the greatest of highs; yet never without that torture. Hearts haul their fans right to the edge of the abyss, and most of the time they just drive right off it”.