Writer, Filmmaker, Mother, Grandmother
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
It was the Equinox. Spring had returned from its confident march beyond the winter horizon, slipping back into its familiar cove. Crisp white snowdrops pressed against the blue expanse, the colours of the saltire blossoming under shards of light that swept triumphantly from a glittering, enthusiastic sun. As sunlight gave way to a pinky dusk… Continue reading Aye Write! The Books That Made Nicola Sturgeon.
It's St Patrick's Day, an event celebrated all over the world in memory of the Patron Saint of Ireland (who incidentally was born in Scotland so there's a very valid excuse to celebrate across the water too!). Whilst celebration, friendship, kinship and a few glasses of Guinness are on the menu for a lot of people… Continue reading A beautiful Irish poem for St Patrick’s Day
Grief is a monster. A parasite as heavy as sin that clings brutally to the emptiness that loss exhumes. It steals your breath, shocking your body at every turn, luring your soul into the slow tide of darkness. A bleak and endless eruption of eerie silence it rises methodically to the surface, piercing any hint of… Continue reading Grief is an emotional amputation.
Hidden in the urban setting, behind the houses across the narrow street from my city home, there's a mud-stained lane that serves as a tiny reminder of my rural life. Along with my dog and cats, I hobble there in the mornings, my joints like steel, my footsteps like fire, my imposter of a body carrying me into… Continue reading If you listen carefully enough you can hear the pain of pro-creation.
This week I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful session at Glasgow Women's Library Story Café. Fellow Thunderpoint author Helen MacKinven was speaking about her fantastic novel Talk of the Toun. Actually, she wasn't just talking about the novel, she spoke passionately about her journey as a writer; her route to publication, and her determination to stay true… Continue reading Staying true to voice, however that may sound.
I'm at my island home. There's a storm outside. The wind is strong and vocal, its intensity tossing the sea into a sky kneeling so low it is swallowing salty water hungrily; head back, gaping throat open, the effervescent foam gushing down its impossibly long neck. The peat is burning, its heavy hue hitching an easy ride on the fertile surf that… Continue reading Today the world lost a friend and the island mourns.
Margot McCuaig 