(This article was first published in the Summer 2022 edition of The Author, the journal of the Society of Authors.) ‘Maggie Craig! Your language!’ Although I didn’t entirely buy my cousin’s wide-eyed look of shock, I told her it wasn’t my language, it was the characters’ language. If you’re an early 19th...
No upcoming events to report at the moment....
The Festival! The Fringe! Street theatre! The Edinburgh Military tattoo and the massed pipes and drums! Glorious sunshine one day, a Biblical downpour the next! It was much the same 200 years ago when King George IV paid an official visit to Edinburgh. In August 1822 the entertainment, the bagpipes and the street theatre...
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Glenshiel in 1719. Well, it is if we forget the change in the calendar but we’ll not go into that now. Thought I would give my article on what might be called the forgotten Jacobite Rising another wee whirl. It was published in Historia magazine on...
On Thursday 16th June at 7pm, I’ll be in conversation with Dr Arran Johnston at the Battle of Prestonpans Jacobite Museum. This has its home in Prestonpans Town Hall. Arran and I will be talking about my Jacobite books and lots more. Booking is essential. You can buy tickets here. ...
I’ve had some good publicity around the publication of the new editions of Damn Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45 and Bare-Arsed Banditti: The Men of the ’45. The Sunday Post did an excellent full-page spread, written by Tracey Bryce and using one of my favourite paintings of Jacobite Times to illustrate it. Susan...
Last year I realized that this year, 2022, would be the 25th anniversary of the first publication of Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45. I approached the publisher, Penguin Random House, and suggested a special edition to mark this milestone. I’m delighted to say that the new edition will be available from...
This moving poem is by my friend Nimmou Nilakantan. We got to know each other at the school gates back in the mid 1980s when we were both young mums. Our sons met in the classroom as wee boys and were soon best buddies. Nimmou, her husband Nila and their two lads were in...
One Week in April: The Scottish Radical Rising of 1820 was launched on 2nd April 2020. All sorts of live events were planned for the bicentenary of the Rising, (also known as the Radical War). One which went ahead was the inaugural Paisley Book Festival. I treasure my lanyard as a reminder of live events...
Very pleased to have been asked by the lovely and dedicated Inverness Outlanders to speak about some of the women I wrote about in Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45 at an online event. The third Inverness Outlanders LIVE online show happens this coming Tuesday, 23rd February at 7pm on...