Anne-Marie has brought her lunch outside. It’s one of those early April days when the earth offers up composty aromas and the breeze, at least for the moment, has lost its chill. She tilts her head to feel the sun’s warmth, soft on her face for the first time in months. Unusually contented, she opensContinue reading “Epiphanies and Robberies Chapter 4: April – The Devil’s Stone”
Category Archives: Family life
Heading Home: a miscellany of writings
In late 2020, on saying goodbye to four decades of work in academia, I resolved to devote time to something that had been bubbling up in my thinking for quite a while: the desire to continue writing, but to do so in a more creative and inventive manner. True, I’d recently written a biography whichContinue reading “Heading Home: a miscellany of writings”
Epiphanies and Robberies Chapter 2 February – Candlemas
Welcome to chapter 2 of my serialised novel. You can find the first chapter here Anne-Marie has become totally absorbed in her new score. It’s an ambitious homage to Nithsdale: 12 inter-linked pieces, each representing a month in the year 2023. She’s given it a name: Calendarium. It’s being created in ‘real time’, and scoredContinue reading “Epiphanies and Robberies Chapter 2 February – Candlemas”
My mother and the Christmas cactus
Now and again I have a sad reminder of a specific time when I upset my mother rather badly. There may well have been other occasions when I did something unkind or ill judged, but this one has stayed in my memory. Mostly dormant, it re-emerges at intervals, to provoke and disrupt. Just as itContinue reading “My mother and the Christmas cactus”
Ageing and illness in a turbulent world
For nearly all of my 77 years on this earth, I have lived in the Dumfriesshire parish of Kirkmahoe. Not easy to find on a map, it’s a delightful place of rolling green pastures that slope down to the banks of the River Nith, just as it nears the end of its watery journey andContinue reading “Ageing and illness in a turbulent world”
The Christmas Eve dinner: a mystery story
The motorway is down to one lane in the deepening snow. I’m in a convoy of vehicles making cautious progress as we all head north. Driving home for Christmas. I reach the Scottish border. The Gretna outlet store, now re-named Caledonia Village, is crammed with last minute shoppers. I take the next exit, headingContinue reading “The Christmas Eve dinner: a mystery story”
Barry Graham and the spirit of Loch Arthur
Over the last decade I have taken many friends, visitors and colleagues to the Loch Arthur Farm Shop, in Beeswing near Dumfries. I’m always pleased when the visit coincides with an opportunity to chat to Barry Graham, who in the interview with me below tells us his intriguing story. One challenge I have had atContinue reading “Barry Graham and the spirit of Loch Arthur”
The summer of love
Saturday early evening she closes the shop. Pulls down the blind, the summer light still pouring in above the door. After cashing up the till, her hand is shaking slightly as she removes £7 and pushes the grubby notes into the back of her purse.
Quotidian 