May 11, 2022May 11, 2022Book Tour, Of Stone and Sky, Scotland Chapel of the Swans On a knoll at the northern end of Loch Insh in Badenoch stands a beautiful little white church with a long history […]
March 29, 2022March 29, 2022Cairngorms, Nature, Uncategorized Naming The Equinox Moon That Saturday was a night of strange conjuctions in the celestial realm. The Friday before had been the full moon and the […]
February 21, 2022February 19, 2022Cairngorms, Hidden Fires, Uncategorized, Walking Ice and Running Water When the author Nan Shepherd was walking the Cairngorms in the 1940s, she once dedicated an entire day to studying the ice […]
January 24, 2022January 22, 2022Cairngorms, Uncategorized, Waterways, Wildlife Winter Solstice Canoe It was just before the winter solstice. The day had flung its arms wide for the short hours of light, throwing glitter […]
December 6, 2021December 6, 2021Cairngorms, Uncategorized Following Nan Shepherd up Creag Dhubh Creag Dhubh is the first hill Scottish writer Nan Shepherd climbed on her journey into the Cairngorms, described in her book The […]
November 2, 2021November 2, 2021Plays, Radio Immaculate – The Birthing of a Radio Play When Lily, a young girl from a troubled background, becomes pregnant, she insists she is still a virgin. A host of professionals […]
October 5, 2021October 6, 2021Events, Uncategorized The Storylands Sessions Setting up a new event is like taking a running jump off a pier. You don’t know if the water’s going to […]
September 6, 2021September 7, 2021Novels, Of Stone and Sky, Scotland On the Trail of the Highland Shepherd We found the abandoned lamb at the edge of a field, bleating plaintively as it trotted towards us on wobbly legs, its […]
July 20, 2021July 20, 2021Cairngorms, Of Stone and Sky, Walking Of Reindeer and Rams Horns Setting off for an overnight climb and camp in the Cairngorms, our mountain guide friend, John, tucked a shepherd’s crook down the […]
June 21, 2021July 7, 2021Books, Cairngorms, Mountains, Of Stone and Sky, Uncategorized, Walking Stone and Sky on Angel’s Peak On this night, eight years ago, I started writing my novel, Of Stone and Sky. It was the summer solstice here in […]