Friday 19 February 2010

It may be cold, it may be dark, and the winter is still with us, but I was on the Isle of Bute in the west of Scotland last week, and it was incredible! Brilliant sunshine and the most beautiful scenery in the world. If you haven't been there, you must go.

I set the first part of my novel, The Witching Hour, on the island. This is the view that the main character, Maggie Blair, would have had from her cottage every morning. Quite something, isn't it?



The action in the novel takes place three hundred years ago in the seventeenth century, when life if Scotland was a bit too exciting if you liked a quiet life. It's being published in paperback in April. Coming soon - a picture of the cover in my next blog post.

I took a day out from Bute , went over to the mainland and visited the school at Lochgoilhead. What a lovely place! The pupils from Strachur school came to join us for the morning, and here we all are together. (I'm the one at the back with the grey hair.) That's all the pupils from two whole schools you're looking at. It must be great to be in such a small school where you can get to know everyone really well. And the playground's not bad, either!