Tag Archives: scotland

Light-filled days

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee feels like a long time ago now. Elizabeth seems a dear old lady, but I have mixed feelings about the institution of monarchy. I lived in Scotland, where the Crown has done some truly terrible things. … Continue reading

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Blessings

January often sees me turning reflective, seeking out essayists like Kathleen Jamie and Alistair McIntosh, to give me the words and images to navigate the dark winter days. Old folk songs sing of the ‘ghosts’ that visit us at this … Continue reading

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The Railway Tunnel

At the weekend, we travelled up to North Devon to finally celebrate my mum’s 70th, eighteen months late. We’d re-booked the holiday cottage three times. It was a wonderful, glowing time of family, good food, long walks, and pottering around … Continue reading

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Knuckle’s Cottage

This summer, the fabulous book reviewer, Louisa at Roaring Reads, suggested creating a holiday itinerary based on the places in your favourite books. Inspired, I’ve created three films, taking you to some of the Scottish locations in my book, The … Continue reading

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Summer Memories

Here’s a few memories from the summer to share…  I met up with a couple of friends at the book festival in Edinburgh. It was lovely to get together and chat books, art and writing to our hearts’ content. The … Continue reading

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Departures

I hope you had a lovely Summer. We returned from Scotland with our hearts full of memories of mountaintop views and the evening light glittering the surface of the river. It was just wonderful and exactly what we needed. Back … Continue reading

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Visitors

Look at some of the beautiful visitors we’ve had to our garden recently. The black and white striped insect is a day-flying moth called the Jersey Tiger Moth – very striking. And don’t you think the underside of the Red … Continue reading

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Folktales: My Baddies

At the beginning of my book The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, Avery has a horrible feeling she is being followed by something not nice… and it turns out she’s correct! There’s a few baddies in the book, and my ideas for them … Continue reading

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Folktales: Crannogs and The Crannog – Monsters in the Landscape

In my book, The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, there is a great monster, kept in an enchanted sleep in a cavern under Edinburgh. The creature is called a Crannog. A crannog is not really a monster at all, but when … Continue reading

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Folktales: Scottish Faeries and ‘othering’

I’ve written in my previous post about the Cat Fae element of Avery’s character in my book, The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle. For those of you who don’t know, one of Avery’s secrets is that she is a Cat Fae. … Continue reading

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