Once upon a time, twenty-five years ago or so, I was sitting in the waiting room of my dentist's office - one of my least favorite places to be - anxiously awaiting my turn in the chair. I glanced down at the table next to me, cluttered with dog-eared, faded magazines, and was surprised to see a big, fat paperback book with no cover. Curious, I picked it up, and it fell open to a fairly graphic love scene between two people - one of whom was obviously English, and the other a Scot. I turned to the first page and read:
People disappear all the time. Ask any policeman. Better yet, ask a journalist. Disappearances are bread-and-butter to journalists.
Young girls run away from home. Young children stray from their parents and are never seen again. Housewives reach the end of their tether and take the grocery money and a taxi to the station. International financiers change their names and vanish into the smoke of imported cigars.
Many of the lost will be found, eventually, dead or alive. Disappearances, after all, have explanations.
Usually.
Ooh, (thought I) a mystery. A mystery set in Scotland. I turned the page, and read through four or five pages before I ended up in the chair. For once, I was completely distracted from what was going on in my mouth. When I was released and went to the counter to confirm my insurance information, I asked about the book. The receptionist told me it had been there for a couple of weeks, and to go ahead and take it.
I'm sure everyone who's been drawn into Diana Gabaldon's complex multi-volume series of genre-defying novels remembers how the first volume, Outlander ended up before their eyes. And most have a favorite volume (mine's Voyager, the third in the series), and can quote lines or complete paragraphs.
In August 2014 Starz began airing the Outlander series that is very loyal to the books, adding hundreds of thousands more fans to the timeless tale of Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser and James Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser, and their network of friends, extended family - and enemies.
Below are swatches of the clan tartans of the main and secondary characters that appear in the Outlander series, and district tartans for some locales. Clicking on a swatch will whisk you away to a collection of products with that tartan, in the Plaidwerx shop.
In Outlander, Mrs Baird is the proprietor of the bed and breakfast where Frank and Claire Randall stayed during their second honeymoon in 1946.
Jocasta Cameron, sister of Dougal and Colum Mackenzie, aunt of Jamie Fraser, first appears in Drums of Autumn, the fourth novel in the Outlander series.
Claire Randall Fraser meets the Rev. Archibald Campbell and his sister, Margaret, in Edinburgh in the novel Dragonfly In Amber. They meet again in the third novel, Voyager.
Tom Christie is a fellow prisoner of Jamie Fraser's at Ardsmuir after the Jacobite Rising of 1745. He meets up again with the Frasers in The Fiery Cross, the fifth novel in the Outlander series.
Claire and Jamie Fraser first meet Geillis Duncan in Outlander, when she is married to Arthur Duncan, the Procurator Fiscal of the village of Cranesmuir.
James Alexander Malcolm Mackenzie Fraser is one of the main characters in the Outlander series of novels. His sister, Jenny Fraser Murray appears in several of the novels as well.
In Outlander, Mrs. Graham is housekeeper for the Reverend Reginald Wakefield and his great-nephew, Roger Mackenzie, who appears in several of the series' novels.
Gavin Hayes is one of the Ardsmuir prisoners, and appears in Drums of Autumn. His son, Lieutenant Archie Hayes, leads a Highland regiment, appearing at the Gathering in the same novel.
Duncan Innes is one of Jamie Fraser's fellow prisoners at Ardsmuir prison after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. In time he becomes Jamie's right-hand man, and eventually marries into Jamie's family.
Kenny Lindsay is a former Ardsmuir prisoner who settles on Fraser's Ridge, first appearing in Drums of Autumn, the fourth novel in the Outlander series.
Members of Clan Mackenzie, especially clan chief Colum and war chieftain Dougal, play pivotal roles in the first two novels in the Outlander series.
Grannie MacNab is one of the tenants at Jamie Fraser's home of Lallybroch, and appears briefly in Outlander. Her granddaughter-in-law Mary, a kitchen maid at Lallybroch, offers Jamie comfort in Voyager.
Mr and Mrs Alexander Malcolm, two of Jamie Fraser's middle names, are pseudonyms Claire and Jamie adopt in Voyager, the third novel in the Outlander series.
In Outlander, Hugh Munro, a friend of Jamie Fraser's, gives Claire Fraser a dragonfly suspended in petrified tree sap as a gift.
The Murray family - Jamie's sister Jenny, her husband Ian, and their children - appear together or separately in all of the novels in the Outlander series.
Jamie and Claire Fraser meet Charles Stewart, also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, in the second novel in the Outlander series, Dragonfly In Amber.
Lizzie Wemyss first appears in the fourth novel in the Outlander series, Drums of Autumn. She travels from Scotland to America as a handmaid and bondservant to Brianna Fraser, and reunites with her father Joseph there.
In the second novel in the Outlander series, Dragonfly In Amber, Bonnie Prince Charlie takes command of the Highland army and orders them to take a stand on Culloden Moor.
Jamie and Claire Fraser visit Edinburgh in the several novels from the Outlander series.
Stirling and Bannockburn District Tartan
Jamie Fraser and Dougal Mackenzie call on Bonnie Prince Charlie at Stirling Castle in the second novel in the Outlander series, Dragonfly In Amber.
State of North Carolina Tartan
Jamie and Claire Fraser make a new home for themselves, their extended family, and friends in the Royal Colony of North Carolina in the fourth novel in the Outlander series, Drums of Autumn.
