Highlands and Islands by guest author David Munro

Thanks to Scottish author David Munro for this great blog piece. David would love to visit Orkney and I hope he'll be able to come up some time.

David's current novel Georgina is the fourth in his Time Jigsaw series.



A love and admiration for Scotland’s picturesque northern landscapes did not materialise until my mid-twenties. Born and brought up in Scotland’s capital city and at one time staying in the Royal Mile, the country’s Highlands and Islands were almost unknown to this lowlander. Family holidays tended to be in a warmer climate in England and beyond. A school trip at fourteen years of age to the West Highland town of Mallaig and Kyleakin on Skye was my sole experience to a land north of Edinburgh. However, in May 1981 all was about to change.

The company I worked for was a well-known brewer and offered me the chance to further my business career. Being in a rut, I jumped at the chance and relocated to Aberdeen. My area for work would be the Grampian Region. This included not only Aberdeen, but Fort William, Inverness, Stornoway and Carloway. As a city dweller, the latter two situated on the Isle of Lewis captured my imagination. However, to reach them, the journey from my flat in Aberdeen involved a two and a half hour drive to Dalcross Airport outside Inverness then a flight to Stornoway Airport. Thankfully, a year later, a flight from Aberdeen to Stornoway was introduced and the drive to Inverness was to my delight, eliminated. A lasting memory of flights on a ‘paraffin budgie’ to Stornoway was a sudden turbulence which occurred after thirty minutes. I made sure I finished my cup of coffee well before.

I found the people in the Highlands and Islands genuine and hospitable. It was a joy working in the region. As a representative of Tennent Caledonian Breweries, I would visit pubs and hotels to ensure profits remained positive. The Doune Braes in Carloway was an outlet which intrigued me. Thirty miles from Stornoway, it had a sales turnover comparable to that of a city centre pub in Edinburgh! Remote as it was, an oasis although not in the desert, but a rural setting.

Being the ambitious type and after only fifteen months, once more I was given the opportunity to further my career. The change of scenery had been beneficial not only in terms of work competency, but also my frame of mind. The Highlands and Islands had rejuvenated me – a breath of fresh air.

I moved to Glasgow and nine years later, my career with Tennent Caledonian Breweries ended. In a 17-year career, the highlight was my time spent in the North of Scotland. If I could choose a period in time to experience again, it would be the fifteen months spent there.

Now a writer, my novels have a Scottish theme with scenes from the area I frequented as a young business professional. An admiration for the Highlands and Islands has not diminished. A bonus of being a writer is to participate in literary events and in my favourite region. Next year if restrictions are eased, I plan to visit Stornoway and discuss my novels with the community. Since my once-monthly trips to the island, it will have been forty years, therefore a long overdue return. Given the experience of fifteen bumpy flights, perhaps I’ll take the ferry.

My current novel, Georgina, has its closing chapters in the West Highlands and next years release has a beginning and conclusion in Plockton. A village close to Skye, the Highlands and Islands connection continues.

Visit David's blog:

www.timejigsaw.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Literary Skulduggery from Shetland, courtesy of poet Chris Tait

Image
  I am excited and delighted that poet Chris Tait has agreed to contribute to the Quill. Chris is not only an outstanding poet, but is also a playwright, fantasy writer and spoken word supremo. She currently lives in Glasgow, but her writing still very much flows from her Shetland roots. The poems are from her anthology Literary Skulduggery.  https://amzn.eu/d/11yOlvM The Stone Solitaire Islands A skull in a blistered helmet Called from the Nordic crews His bones marched streets in amulets And sailed seas like a bruise His ruined croft was Camelot A golden egg by a goose Rings on cushions from rats Bonds for the guizer jarl's house The ruffled manes of hamlets In a rock measured radius Crofters jousted for their plots Tassels are handcuffs and a noose Beelzebub and his Minions Patrick's criminal fingerprints He clumsily slipped the sovereign At the castle with razor points The carriage burst to a pumpkin The little match girl was a servant Learning spells with cauldrons Banquet
Read more

Irish Folklore by Nina Oram

Image
  I am delighted to welcome Irish based writer Nina Oram to the Quoyloo Quill. Nina's books are bulging treasure chests of Celtic folklore, some of which are not too far removed from Orcadian folk legends. When Babs offered me the chance to talk about my writing and Irish mythology and folklore, I was thrilled and honoured. I thought it would be so easy, after all, my trilogy and many of my stories are immersed in Ireland’s rich tradition, and yet the more I tried to put my thoughts down, the more elusive they became. It was like unpicking a knot. My YA Dark Fantasy Trilogy started with a trip to the Carrowkeel Tombs, five neolithic tombs perched on top of a hill in County Sligo in the province of Connacht. Being able to sit inside stone walls that had been built millennia ago, listening to the wind shriek past, was for me, sublime. Evoking, as it always does, that strangely wonderous feeling of having connected with something magical. But old magic. The magic of the crow,
Read more

Travels with my Neighbour

Image
                                   Our first trip, so to speak, was a quick jaunt to Birsay for a tea/coffee in the tearoom there and a look out to sea. It wasn't until after our second 'joy ride' - a sunny drive to the round church in Orphir, en route encountering a distinctly uncooperative set of traffic lights, and admiring a preening seal in the shallow waters of Stenness loch - that the idea for a journal took root. Although neither my neighbour nor I are reduced to wearing purple (well, maybe sometimes) we are both of an age to laugh in the face of self-consciousness, which augured well for hearty adventures. Two things came to mind when planning this blog. The first is that due to declining eyesight and reduced mobility my neighbour no longer drives herself. During our trip she observed with wonder the cloud patterns over Hoy and the sun ripples on the water of the loch, and declared how beautiful Orkney is. My neighbour has lived on Orkney for many years, but not ge
Read more