I wrote this article to mark the 200th anniversary of The Great Fire of Edinburgh and to tell the story of the Theatre Royal's contribution to help victims of the fire in the aftermath.

On the evening of November 15th, 1824, at half past six, Mr Garbutt at the Box Office opened the doors of the Theat...

When Walter Scott's latest Waverley novel, St Ronan's Well, was developed for the stage and Edinburgh's Theatre Royal manager, William Murray, wanted it performed for his benefit night on June 5th 1824 he had a problem.

The lead comedy role was that of Meg Dodds, the landlady. A woman had played the ...

Green Shoots of Hope

I woke this morning to rain.

Again.

May was never so wet.

And yet, I had a hunch.

Shrugged on my coat and ventured out before lunch

To see if peas I'd sown had swollen

Under damp loam

And, skins bursting,

Had pushed shy green tips into the light.

They had!

I wrote this feature article for The Scotsman, who kindly published it on the Publication Day of my first novel: The Real Mackay, 28th May 2024.