I’ve ignored this blog for too long and now there’s too much to include, so here’s some happenings from March to August!

The Rewilders came out on the 24th of March, which seems ages ago now, and I had a lovely book signing at Waterstones Silverburn to celebrate. I was keen to keep the event quite low-key, as I’d been told earlier in the month that the dodgy-looking mole on my arm was a malignant melanoma, so didn’t want to add to my already high stress levels! The NHS were amazing and removed the mole in super-quick time. For the next five years, I’ve to go for 3-monthly check-ups on all my moles and if I’ve any worries about them, I can phone the cancer nurse for advice and they’ll see me asap. We are so lucky to have our NHS and should be doing all we can to ensure we don’t lose it!

The most exciting happening in May was the British Book Awards. Cranachan Books had been declared Small Publisher of the Year Scotland 2022 and we were all keen to celebrate in London. It was a wonderful evening and a thrill to meet lots of amazing authors, including Hannah Gold and Val McDiarmid, and to catch up with friends!

In June, I made a delightful trip to Mull to meet the staff and pupils of Dervaig Primary. Getting to do an event in their gorgeous Community Orchard was a real privilege.  I also learned a lot about the local wildlife. When one wee lad told me he was missing his hens,  I asked if they’d been taken by a fox. He gave me a look. “There are no foxes on Mull, Lindsay. The otters came down the hill and killed all my hens.” And there was me, thinking otters were cute.

Inverclyde’s Meliora Festival in mid-June was tremendous fun. My first event in a massive inflatable structure! It was followed by a relaxing week’s holiday in Sorrento and an author visit to the Scottish Game Fair.

August highlights were attending the Edinburgh Book Festival’s opening party, meeting Elmer the elephant, doing an author event ‘Scottish Rewilding Adventures’ at the festival and finding out that my son Matt has got a part in the tv adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies. So excited about the prospect of seeing my boy on the telly!