Ice

Added on 26 February 2018

What is it about frozen lochans? I am entranced by them. Yesterday we walked for hours out into the frozen hinterland of Assynt, crunching across bogs that would, in their normal state, swallow us up to at least our knees. This land is more water than solid earth, and the network of little lochs is...

Book Launch for The Walrus Mutterer

Added on 26 February 2018

My new historical novel, The Walrus Mutterer, the first of a trilogy called Stone Stories, will launch in March 2018 at an event in Lochinver. The novel is set in the Iron Age, 320 BC, and the blurb on the back says. 'A visceral evocation of ancient folklore and ritual, The Walrus Mutterer is an...

Mystery!

Added on 10 February 2018

Down by the shore on the croft, where the woods go right down to the sea, there is an old aspen tree with a hollow branch. It's an old favourite. Last weekend, on a whim, I peered into the hole. To my amazement, inside was a curled up butterfish. Who put it there? Will they come back and get it?...

Hibernation season

Added on 30 January 2018

No self-respecting bear would be showing its nose out of its den in weather like this – each day another gale blasts through. The inshore shipping forecast is for the sea state known as ‘high’ – beyond rough, beyond very rough, a high sea is an unthinkably dangerous place to ...

Writing History Fiction

Added on 27 January 2018

I will be leading a masterclass in writing historical fiction as part of the Aye Write festival this year, on Saturday 17 March, 12-1.30 at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. All welcome! I'll also be reading from The Walrus Mutterer at the Ullapool Book Festival on Friday 11 May, at 11.30am, when...

Dormancy

Added on 27 January 2018

The day after I got back from New Zealand I was felled by flu, and have been in bed mostly since then, just now starting to get back to something like normality, although it will be a while until I feel properly better, I fear. I have a spent a lot of time over the past 12 days just staring out of ...