West Linton, Derek Watsons old Bookshop ,Deanfoot rd, West Linton, Scotland, UK, EH46 7DX - Linton Books

Obituary - Derek Watson, musician, author, actor, lecturer and book shop proprietor - read more at https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16969748.obituary---derek-watson-musician-author-actor-lecturer-book-shop-proprietor/ Born: November 6, 1948; Died: September 17, 2018 DEREK Watson, who has died aged 69 following a short illness, was a man of many parts and arts. Those who knew the Edinburgh-born renaissance man as an actor performing under the name Derwent Watson at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow may not have been aware that Watson began his relationship with the Citz as a musical director on Christmas shows, becoming forever known thereafter as Uncle Derek. Similarly, the youngsters watching Uncle Derek will not have known of Watson’s passion for Wagner and other composers he was an authority on, penning several biographies on them, and slipping little classical passages into his compositions for the Citz’s festive fare un-noticed. Nor might those who heard Watson give lectures on Wagner and others be aware of his long-standing role as proprietor of a bookshop in West Linton where he lived for more than 20 years, with both he and the shop immortalised in a novel by Alexander McCall Smith. In 1994, having been a resident in West Linton for a decade, he opened Linton Books. Once he had retired from the theatre, the shop provided him with an alternative stage, ‘playing’ the proprietor of the shop to entertain customers. Book signings by authors included Alexander McCall Smith, whose second novel in the Sunday Philosophy Club series, Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, published in 2005, found the book’s heroine Isabel Dalhousie visiting Derek in his capacity as bookseller. The shop itself featured during the unravelling of the story’s mystery. Being immortalised in such a way was the perfect compliment to Watson, who retained a curiosity for the finer things in life that went beyond his considerable intellect to draw out the fun beneath.