An author is set to visit Alloa at the end of this month to give a talk on his book detailing one of the town's most famous sons.
'JJ' is a book about John Jameson, an Alloa-born lawyer who went to Ireland and founded a famous whiskey brand.
It's written by one of his descendants, Brian Jameson, who will talk about his work at the Speirs Centre on Thursday, November 30, at 2pm.
As well as telling the story of John Jameson, the book goes into the history of Alloa, and what the town went through over the years, from Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite rebellion through to the industrial revolution.
Brian said: “Because John spent the majority of his life there the book goes through many interesting spells of Alloa's history. He was born in 1740 and the Jacobite Rebellion was in 1745, so it explores how this affected him and others living in Alloa.
"For Alloa, it looks at its history from around this point to a time when they were beginning to put up street lights and there were paddle steamers going down to Edinburgh. There’s a whole wave of Alloa history because it was so involved in his life.”
Brian explained that the "catalyst" for the book was when his cousin got an invitation to a whisky tasting at Alloa Tower.
"I knew a lot about John before that, and that there was a connection to Alloa, but I thought he was just born there and then moved to Ireland, when in fact he spent most of his life there," explained Brian.
“I always assumed I was an Irishman, as my parents were Irish so I thought John must have moved over when he was very young and then all of his kids stayed over there.
"It wasn’t until I went to the whisky event at Alloa Tower that John Jameson was a factor on the estate there, and that’s how he started out. Then everything started to fit into place after that.”
The first distillery purchased by John Jameson was the Lochrin Distillery in Edinburgh in 1789. Later, he branched out into Irish whiskey when he helped purchase the Bow Street Distillery in Dublin in 1805, which was later renamed John Jameson & Son.
Find out more about the book and John Jameson's life at the Speirs Centre talk. To book a free place call 01259 452262.
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