Dark Knight Director Turns to Our Darkest Hour –

Dunkirk and Dumfries

I just went to see the new film about Dunkirk and was reminded of how Dumfries and the Battle of Britain and the great evacuation were linked. It is always seen as Britain’s Darkest Hour. The film doesn’t have a lot of dialogue and focuses on the personal stories of some of the survivors and of course stars Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance and Harry Styles. I felt the film was a little bit lacking in storyline and dialogue and I enjoyed it, but not as much as I had hoped. Which was exactly how I felt on the director’s take on the Batman Series.  The Dark Knight Trilogy even though the series was a huge commercial success. I guess sometimes you are just out of kilter with other people’s taste.

Spitfires over Dumfries

But this film has a direct connection to a new public show in Dumfries which features a World war II Spitfire recovered  from the bottom of Loch Doon in Ayrshire in 1982 after a four-year search by divers. And that was just the beginning of the struggle to get the fighter plane restored to its historic finery.  It is a Battle of Britain survivor from 1940 and it crashed during a training flight from Ayr in 1941, killing the Czech pilot. Now after 35 years of work  the Spitfire is finally ready to take pride of place at Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum whose founders first commissioned the salvage project way back in 1977. Although the exterior of the plane has been largely completed there is still lots of work to do to the interior and visitors in the near future will be able to sit in the cockpit of the world’s best known WWII fighter plane.

World Renowned

Now we here at James Pirie also know a thing or two about world famous names and marques, selling as we do a wide range of world renowned names from Scotland and across the Isles. Our friends at Caithness Glass have been making glass marvels since 1961, including the annual Mastermind trophy.  It was founded by Robin Sinclair who himself flew Supermarine Spitfires in 684 Squadron of the RAF, doing high speed photo-reconnaissance. His legacy lives on and the designers and glass makers have now made some 2500 paper weights designs. If you fancy one of their finest the Flower of Scotland design is now on special offer. But very special and wholly new to us is the very limited edition of the Lampwork Lilac Aster which is only available in a strictly limited edition of 15 pieces, an entirely rare collectible gem of a the glassmaker’s art: Available to pre-order now.

https://www.jamespirie.com/lampwork-lilac-aster.html

 

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