It’s hot by Scottish standards. The yachts navigating the sound of Mull and the Firth of Lorne have been looking listless. Some have mainsail only up so it’s likely that the diesel-driven horses are pushing the boat. Others don’t seem to be in a hurry. That’s cruising. The passage plan is revised according to conditions. […]

In case you didn’t see it on Western Isles Libraries Facebook page – heres’ a new poem made in response to invitation from Kathleen Milne, team leader Western isles Libraries Bookmarks Dinny Smith comes home Among the Bushrangers
 The Gorilla Hunters Two Years before the Mast
 The Coral Sea
 The Sea of Adventure Kidnapped Northern […]

A strong theme is becoming defined in this Western Isles Libraries Residency.
At our first meeting in Stornoway, the logs of voyages, historical or imagined, led to a range of references to different quests. The near-contemporary “Waterlog” by Roger Deakin linked back to John Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress” where an inner journey becomes a sustained parable […]

When I set off across The Meadows for George Square, I didn’t realize I was on a voyage back through stages of life and tiers of friendship. There was the Edinburgh Review and former Polygon office. I was mentally back to a meeting there after receiving a letter from one Peter Kravitz saying yes Polygon […]

It was a dirty day outside. I could see line squalls pacing across the harbour. A rope parted on my own moored vessel but no damage was done. I heard the ferry held off for hours till a lull let her dock safely. I remembered that my current job description is Reader in Residence. I […]

I phoned to make a bank transfer and the person on the other end was chatty, while the numbers were chuntering. Where exactly do you live? she asked. I described the Hebrides as being about 3 hours out, by ferry from the northwest mainland. Now that’s a long way from anywhere I’d know, she said. […]

I’ve a bit of driftwood that’s built into bookshelves on the upper floor of my house at the harbour. My eldest son, Sean, gave me it. He knows I like to sense the stories behind found timber. He picked this up from Fladda Chuinn, one of the Islands off the near coasts of Skye. He […]

For the last month, I’ve been surfing on stories. Part of my working week has been working intensively on a novel-in-progress and part has been spent in navigating my way through the Morrison Manuscript – Traditions of the Western Isles. The novel has been on the stocks for about thirty years so I’m reasonably familiar […]

This is one of 5 Reader in Residence posts throughout Scotland. These are part of the Creative Futures project, funded by Creative Scotland, developed and administered by Shetland Arts Trust. They range from the poet Jen Hadfield’s post with Shetland Libraries to Maureen Sangster’s residency at a mental health facility. My own project has been […]