Writer, Filmmaker, Mother, Grandmother
I was really delighted to be part of the audience that swayed, laughed, wept and even sang, at the ‘Carol Ann Duffy with Jackie Kay’ event at the Edinburgh Book Festival last week. I was there as a guest of the team behind the phenomenal ‘Dangerous Women’ project. The project, in case you haven’t already… Continue reading A Laureate, a Makar, the @edbookfest and @DangerousWomen_
I'm returning to the city tomorrow, back to my home town of Glasgow. I've been at Maoil na nDreas, my home on Rathlin Island, for three weeks. I've been working (a lot) but I've also been holidaying, spending quality time with family, writing, laughing, looking. Just looking. We don't look enough. When we do, we… Continue reading Saying goodbye is easier when the island is keeping watch.
Rathlin Island, the only habited island in Northern Ireland, has been a hot topic recently after a half-joking (and therefore half-serious) post-Brexit campaign to join an independent Scotland was picked up by the Scottish media. The campaign was spotted by political correspondent Gerry Braiden and he subsequently wrote an extensive article in the Herald. This was followed by a… Continue reading Post #Brexit Rathlin Island isn’t just about Robert the Bruce, spiders and snakes.
A short time ago, I attended a seminar at the Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde. Professor Callum G Brown was discussing "Laughing Out Loud in Oral Testimony: what does it mean?". Callum was talking about personal testimony interviews he had been recording as part of the research for his latest book, stating that he… Continue reading Laughing in literature, working class women in Scottish writing
I'll be in conversation with Professor Richard Haynes from the Stirling University Centre for Gender and Feminist Studies at a LEAP Sport Scotland / Scottish Book Trust Live Literature event tomorrow, 8th June 2016 at 18.30pm. Ironically, and quite aptly, we'll be discussing representations of gender in sport at the Stirling Boy's Club. You can book tickets here.… Continue reading Come along to my @leapsports @scottishbktrust event, 8th June.
I was incredibly thrilled to win a Royal Television Society Scotland award at a glitzy ceremony in Glasgow on the 25th of May for Jim Baxter, a documentary film I wrote, produced and directed. The film, produced by my co-owned production company purpleTV, is an intimate portrayal of the personal and professional life of Jim Baxter,… Continue reading RTS award for ‘Jim Baxter’.
The Dangerous Women Project is an initiative of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. The Project asks: what does it mean to be a ‘dangerous woman’? The idea that women are dangerous individually or collectively permeates many historical periods, cultures and areas of contemporary life (despite, and in some instances in… Continue reading Honeyballers: Lady Florence Dixie and the dangerous women of Scottish women’s football
The swallows are home from their travels, fountain pen tails inking the sky with stories, polished backs glistening like stars falling from the passing night. They are way too quick to allow me to photograph them but they are making their presence felt, swooping low and daringly along the edge of the patio, their new… Continue reading Pushing beyond the swallows at Maoil na nDreas.
I was thrilled this week when the nominations for this year's Royal Television Society Scotland awards were announced. The RTS awards are the gold standard of achievement in the television industry recognising excellence across the entire range of programme making and broadcasting skills. Two (yes, two!) films that I wrote, produced and directed have been shortlisted for an award. Tartan… Continue reading Royal Television Society Scotland nominations!
I was back at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow last night, this time attending an Aye Write! event featuring Kate Tempest, hosted by the brilliant poet Holly McNish. My friend Beccy and I settled into the packed theatre, a room tense with creative anticipation. We soon found out that the passion was well-placed. Kate, well… Continue reading “All fiction begins in a lived truth” says @katetempest
Margot McCuaig 