A venture right out of the comfort zone.  Here in the north east we are well used to the modern day Biggles buzzing around, hunting in pair...

Scratch the surface of the island today and you may find that much of yesteryear is barely hidden.  The rocks are ancient, as old as the pla...

I rarely pen book reviews these days.  However, I do contribute regularly to a couple of online resources, weekly posts where readers confi...

The whirring of wings and slapping of feet draws the eye.  A mass rising from the water.  The fish-hawk makes his entrance.  Hungry, aft...

One of the UK's biggest spills of plastic pellets (or “nurdles”) is flooding the North East’s coastline. It could harm wildlife in the North Sea for decades. Thousands of volunteers – including Friend...

Having failed to make a trip to the Treshnish Isles from a recent Iona visit, we had explored the possibilities of a day trip from home, bu...

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As I slowed in approach to the lights at the first junction, where I knew I had to turn right, a heron lowered her landing gear and glided ...

A new poetry pamphlet from HedgehogPoetryPress due out March 2025 To buy a signed copy of this pamphlet please email the author giving your address at margaretroyall@icloud.com For UK orders £10 to…

It might be a bit sad really - keeping track of everything read through the year.  And what a year it has been, with a total 182 books read...

A familiar path, upstream, from shingle to viaduct.  In unfamiliar winter guise. The dense foliage of summer has long been dropped; the rosy...

When I read A Reed Shaken by the Wind for the first time, more than 25 years ago, I knew little of Gavin Maxwell , other than otters and a...

It is something I do, reading.  Have done for as long as I can remember.  Those early days when Kandy Meets the Bunny Babes was the tale o...

Conscious that I had been rattling through vast amounts of crime reading, typically set in Finland or Iceland, Sweden and Norway, I took a...

(my speech for the Women Create festival)

to My Favourite Place.  Three ferries, hours on the road.  High Society and Oklahoma once we put the city behind us; and we are well on the...

In this raw and honest memoir, acclaimed writer Caro Giles tells of her daily battles with a system that doesn't work for all students, and how she is forced to confront the status quo.

I mentioned podcasts a little while back.  One of those I had listened to was from Paperboats ; and in particular Merryn Glover.   Anything...

It must have been a little north of 15 years ago that I dipped my toe into the very murky waters of the Byron legend.  I had been putting t...

Ten years after the Independence Referendum, Irish Pages asks diverse Scottish writers of distinction – established, mid-career and new – to think about their country, and take stock of the current st...

Sparse with the words today.  Firstly there's a few pictures to raise a smile or two.   And secondly I need the words for another task this...

The first, annual £10,000 Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing will be awarded in 2026 to a published British or European author whose work encourages understanding between peoples and across societies....

This past year or two I have made very little bread, even fewer cakes.  Or at least ones that I could safely eat.  Food intolerances .  The...

At the recent Festival of Arts, Ideas and Books I had a blether with Mike Smith after his reading from his beautifully crafted The Drover...