About Me

I was born in Edinburgh in 1942, and mostly lived in West Lothian before settling in Dunbar in 2000. I was a librarian for 35 years, before becoming a senior manager at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. In 2000 I was President of the Scottish Library Association. I served on the Board of the Scottish Poetry Library for ten years, the last four as its Chair. I served on the Board of StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, for five years, the last three as Convener. I stepped down from the Board in December 2009.

My first poetry collection was Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Highlands (1996), followed by Seven Senses (2000). Both collections were published by diehard publishers of Callander and are now out of print. A chapbook – Mementoliths – was published in 2005. It too is out of print. A diehard paperback – Sushi & Chips – was published in 2006.It can be ordered through the Calder Wood Press website.

Thirteen Ways, Seven Senses and  Mementoliths 2 are now available from Amazon as Kindle editions.  Recycled Cards is another ebook minicollection compiled from poetry cards. It too is available as a Kindle edition.

A new collection – The floor show at the Mad Yak Café - was published by Red Squirrel Scotland in March 2010, and a further collection, The Propriiety of Weeding, is coming from Red Squirrel in March 2012.

I run writing workshops and lead writing groups, design and manage web sites (including Poetry Scotland), publish (as Calder Wood Press) and continue to write poetry, fiction, essays and articles. Travel and photography are among my other interests.

Full biography and sample poems on my website.