The Novellas:The Gods of Grayfriars Lane

Launched at the Word Festival, the Gods of Grayfriars Lane (Lochlands 2008) is a novella in English with Scots dialogue. It centres on the lives of two cousins between the years 1899-1904, and is loosely based on the lives of Lizzie Philip and her cousin Dr Catherine Emslie Anderson, one of the first women doctors to graduate from Aberdeen University. Some background information on these women can be found on 'Serendipity', at www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/corpus/search or 'Leerie-Lichts & Gorblies, from 'Spirits of the Age: Scottish Self Portraits' (Saltire Society, ed Paul Scott, 2005) on www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/secondary/nonfiction

The Poems:Absences

Absences (Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire 2007) is a collection of poems in Scots and English, mostly written during a 5 day stay in Amsterdam, in October 2007. ‘Existentialist’ appears in Best Scottish Poems On-Line Anthology 2007, edited by Alan Spence. ‘Japanese Pool in the Trossachs ‘ has been selected for a forthcoming issue of Poetry Scotland. ‘The Traffic Jam’ and ‘Green Ladies’ have been selected for a forthcoming Doric Anthology to be published by The Reading Bus. ‘The Pageant o Moray’ was specifically written for a Morayshire project, lines from this poem feature in a DVD produced by staff and pupils of Lossiemouth High School.