I grew up in a scheme in Wishaw. As the oldest child, I enjoyed bossing my sisters around and it was inevitable I would become a teacher. I got married at 19 and enjoyed a life of leisure in Geneva, returning to teach Latin in ‘the worst school in Glasgow’ – well that's what the Head claimed at my interview.
My writing career began at the age of ten, writing comic strips and operas for a cast of dolls and teddies. It was only when I retired that I was able to spend ‘quality time’ writing poetry and short stories. I have won prizes for both, and been published in various magazines. Last year I participated in the annual internet-based ‘National novel writing month’, producing a draft crime novel in 30 days. A few months later, I was horrified to discover that Sebastian Faulks had ‘stolen’ my entire plot for his book ‘Engleby’ and managed to publish it before I'd even thought of mine. I am now contemplating a novel about a famous author who is killed in mysterious circumstances by a time-travelling ex Latin teacher.
The high point of my poetry career (so far) has been having a children’s poem published in a Scottish poetry book for schools, alongside ‘real’ poets like Carol Ann Duffy and Edwin Morgan. The poem is 'Catfood rap'.
I writes every day on my computer. I find it too slow using pen and paper. The ability to repeatedly edit and rewrite is crucial, not to mention the essential online rhyming dictionary. My poems take forever to finish - months and sometimes years, from first draft to final version. I write in both Scots and English. I get inspiration from anything – a newspaper headline, a football match, a piece of gossip, some debris in the gutter.
I have self-published a booklet of ‘poetic gems’. I am a member of Biggar writers – invaluable to belong to a group on whom you can try out your writing, especially when they don’t mind telling you what’s wrong with it. Poets I admire include Edwin Morgan, Carol Ann Duffy, Norman McCaig, Billy Collins, William Dunbar, and Vergil.
