Writer, Filmmaker, Mother, Grandmother
It's time to post my 'trick or treat' angst again... It's Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve. The 31st of October is the night before All Saints' Day (All Hallows) in the Christian calendar, or the traditional Celtic festival of Sumhuinn, which marks the end of summer and the harvest, and the onset of a bleak and unsheltered… Continue reading We go guising in Scotland, there’s none of this trick or treat nonsense at Halloween.
I wrote this piece about my writing for the Britfic site. You can read it on the site here and in the copy below. Does it strike any chords with you? The bulk of my creative time recently has been taken up writing factual material for documentary film. In that mode, whilst structuring and de-structuring sensitive and… Continue reading Do we exploit emotions in writing fiction?1
While it may appear that I've been quiet on the writing front (my latest novel is progressing well, but is still a work in progress) I have been incredibly busy writing, producing and directing another project. My latest film, 'Jimmy Johnstone' was premiered at the IMAX cinema in Glasgow on Monday 19th of September to a… Continue reading Writing brilliant characters in fiction and creative non-fiction; a real privilege.
A piece I wrote about writing, producing and directing my latest purpleTV film; Jimmy Johnstone, is on the Glasgow Live website today. You can view it on the site, or below. The premiere screening is at the IMAX Glasgow on Monday evening! Growing up in a football family I was always aware of Celtic’s greatest-ever player: Jimmy Johnstone.… Continue reading From idea to cinema screening, the making of the #JimmyJohnstone film.
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.
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
Margot McCuaig 