I keep discovering so many interesting things during my research that I know will never make it onto the pages of a book, but I still really want to write about them. This is also a good place to put my short stories and poems.
47 days ago
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 ...
47 days ago
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!
61 days ago
ontheroad.edbookfest.co.uk/blog/words-from-the-wards
Our Brief Acquaintance
I must confess, little one, I was unaware of you until after you exploded and nearly took me with you to Kingdom Come. Not that we didn’t want a third child – we did. We’d even begun letting nature take its course with you i...
119 days ago
Seven years ago I came across a scrap of paper among my mother’s family tree research which sparked my curiosity. Apparently we had a Mackay ancestor who was not only a comedian and friend of Walter Scott but also the origin of the well-known phrase The Real Mackay. I wanted to know more and soon di...