Jules Verne's Scotland

Ian Thompson graduated from the Universities of Durham and Indiana. He has held lecturing posts in the universities of Leeds, Southampton and Miami University Ohio before being appointed to the Chair of Geography at Glasgow University in 1976. He is now a Professor at the University of Glasgow, and a leading expert on Jules Verne. was made an Honorary Life Fellow of La Societe de Geographie (Paris) in 2003 and promoted to the rank of Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the French Government in 2005. He was for many years President of the Alliance Francaise de Glasgow.

Verne's imagination may have taken him - and us - to the centre of the Earth and the bottom of the ocean; but it was to Scotland that it returned, over and over again. The ScotsmanAlthough the trip was short-lived, Verne’s experience of Scotland lived forever in his memory, sparking scenes and plots in future works. COLIN WATERS, News Net Scotland