Apart from the fact David Tennant and Toby Jones' wigs shouldn't have been sharing the screen together, The Hack is great. Don't see what the bad reviews are about.

My friend Bob Fell will be talking about a curious episode at Balquhidder at the @scotstorycentre.bsky.social on 28 Oct, with special guest Shamus McPhee. Free tickets so come along. #scotshistory #folklore sisf.online.red61.co.uk/event/913:62...

A great prog at this year’s @portybookfest.bsky.social I’ll be in the Unheard Voices panel, talking about unheard voices in Salvage. First & foremost the Traveller kids taken from their families but also the unheard voices of old generations of my Traveller family, which inspire me to write

That felt good.

An unusual chapter in the history of Jedburgh. Film producers will be tripping over themselves to get the rights for this. www.bbc.com/news/article...

My awesome publisher @tippermuirbooks.bsky.social has a couple of titles shortlisted in this year's Scots Language Awards. The Lass and The Quine and Complete Works of William Soutar. Vote here!👇👍 projects.handsupfortrad.scot/scotslanguag...

Edinburgh Festival goers, if you're partial to a dusty bookshelf and the crackle of delicate pages, come along to the Dear Library story session at the @natlibscot.bsky.social Tuesday, noon, where I'll be reading from History of The Gipsies and from Salvage www.edfringe.com/tickets/what...

I'm looking forward to taking part in the Dear Library event, part of Edinburgh Fringe at @natlibscot.bsky.social my slot is Tues 12 Aug at noon. Tickets 👇 www.edfringe.com/tickets/what...

It's such a pleasure to see reviews like this. I tried to write Salvage with the urgency & pace of a thriller - it seems to have worked! 👍

If you think press treatment of Travellers has become less racist over time, read this from @lsesocialpolicy.bsky.social in the British Journal of Criminology academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-...

A true conundrum. Not surprised it drew a crowd. Must be that time of year again. www.thenational.scot/news/2534447...

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A year since Salvage was published. Thanks to every reader & the amazing @tippermuirbooks.bsky.social @rickhendry.bsky.social @romanistanpodcast.bsky.social @chelsmacdonn.bsky.social - to think one bit of advice I got while writing it was: it wasn't a story anyone would want to read!

Can't help thinking this debacle is what happens when nomadism gets romanticised. Somebody's going to package it up and sell it. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

They fairly jumped the shark at the end of 28 Years Later with the Jimmy Savile-styled zombie killing ninjas. Oh to have been in the writers' room when that post-it got stuck to the wall. "Listen guys, I've got the ideal way to wrap this up..."

When you submit a short story to a high brow lit magazine and the rejection says your poetry wasn't right for our pages, well...

In Scotland this week a small but tenacious group of campaigners brought recognition for countless victims of anti Traveller laws and policies over centuries. The government has apologised and so has the church. What an awesome achievement www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

My grandad ‘Bing’, dad, my oldest son Ozzy, and me, from the first article I wrote for the Romany & Traveller Family History Society. I've been a member off & on nearly 20 years. Joining & contributing is a great way to capture memories of all the great folks from your family! #GRTHM

Here's the final part of the excerpt from Salvage for Gypsy Romany Traveller history month. Enjoy! #GRTHM25 #DebutNovel #scotsnoir #scotshistory #WritingCommunity

Pt2 - in the rare collections room at the National Library of Scotland. #GRTHM25 #gypsytraveller #scotshistory #scotsnoir #mysterynovel #WritingCommunity

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For Gypsy Romany Traveller History Month, here's a scene from Salvage where my protagonist Emma discovers a long forgotten book that uncovers her Traveller roots. More instalments coming soon.  #GRTHM25 #grthistorymonth #romanytraveller #gypsytraveller #mysterynovel

If you’re a reader who likes under-explored histories, check out my novel Salvage which delves into the scandal of forced removals of Traveller kids #GRTHM25 #grthistorymonth #romanytraveller #gypsytraveller #mysterynovel #scotsnoir #scotshistory

This could spread out in various directions now. I'll be watching for what the Church of Scotland has to say. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A writing road trip has me down in Blyth and this, it turns out, is where they filmed the ending of Get Carter on the chase along the coal staithes.

For Gypsy Roma Traveller history month there'll be a few posts here from Salvage to whet the appetite on this rich & under explored history #GRTHM25 #historicalfiction #WritingCommunity #scotshistory

Call out for one more (at least) follower please 😬 😱 🤣.

But they have a new life as the eyes of the low-tech winking emoji ;) www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

This is such a head-slap - a clunky reading can ruin what are otherwise great books so I hate to think what AI narration would be like.  publishingperspectives.com/2025/05/audi...

I over-slept by 2.5 hrs yesterday and generally felt a bit weird. Today someone tells me, 'oh that'll be the Scorpio Full Moon.' I am a Scorpio - and now officially horoscope-curious 🤔

Give the guy a break. He wrote a very good book. He won the prize. #PulitzerPrize www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/b...

Political momentum is gathering around the campaign for an apology for the 'Tinker Experiment'. Scotland has no dedicated lobby org for Travellers. Getting to this stage is down to a small but tenacious group of campaigners uk.news.yahoo.com/victims-scot...

So I’ve been working on a new novel and it’s going well but I’ve been taking breaks to work on something else and ended up with 60K words of one, 80K of the other. I like them both and don’t know which way to  jump when I sit down to write.

Back to short fiction after a break from it and nice to see lit mags have lost none of their taste for weird titles @tacobellquarterly.org @splitlipthemag.bsky.social @doorisajarmag.bsky.social I like the cut of your jib 👍

Lots of good discussion here from @romanistanpodcast.bsky.social taking the idea of GRTs as outcasts back to the caste system, threat of populism to GRTs’ hardwon stake in institutions, & tensions of internal divisions 👍 open.spotify.com/episode/5pIV...

If you missed the last issue of History Scotland, here’s my article on how I went from family history geek to novelist, planning vs 'pantsing' (technical term), and the current ‘Tinker Experiment’ campaign #scotshistory #writingcommunity

‘neutral amenity value’ - officialese at its finest. 🤦‍♂️All statues mark something. That tends to be the nature of them. www.bbc.com/news/article...

I'm biased of course but this 321 Q&A with my local book blogger was lots of fun! The sun’s out & there's a seaside theme here so I'm throwing in the hashtag #SummerReads 😎👇

For all authors, scriptwriters, and writers, for all creatives whatever the medium, copyright protections are vital. Meta has used the works of countless creatives, without consent, to train AI. #DoTheWriteThing and #MakeItFair @writersguildgb.bsky.social @societyofauthors.bsky.social @alcs.co.uk

It would need to be an interesting type of ball game...

The thumbnail looks like I've just found something unpleasant at the back of my fridge (cheers for that YouTube!) but here's a Q&A I did for Roma Words, Roma Worlds book group, talking rookie mistakes of debut novel writing, easy v hard characters & what I’m working on next. youtu.be/7MG0Uc2F41M?...

You'll be hard pressed to find much of this in the news but the Swiss government has set an international human rights precedent by apologising for its historic treatment of Gypsy-Travellers. Scotland may be next. Well done Switzerland & @justiceinfo.bsky.social 👏 www.justiceinfo.net/en/142170-da...

This piece has nailed something that's been bothering me a while. A lot of albums are great not just because of the songs but because of their order. The tyranny of playlists (Sunday Vibes, etc) is causing an under appreciation of this. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

There may soon be the horror of AI-generated novels but there will always be books written by people, who sometimes didn't know what might happen from page to page, who feel that messy process is worth it once the book is out there, connecting them with readers #worldbookday

Look out for the latest (& sadly last ever) issue of History Scotland magazine with my article on the tragic history of the country’s Gypsy-Travellers. Thanks to Shamus McPhee and Dr Lynne Tammi-Connelly for their input on the ‘Tinker Experiment’ campaign.

Last week, we highlighted our report to UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Central to that was a call for accountability for the horrific ongoing legacy for victims of the Tinker Experiments. 📚 Read about links to Nazi eugenicist. www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...

I spoke to @chelsmacdonn.bsky.social about the historic scandal no one seems to know about for this article in Shado mag

2nd draft of my 2nd novel - done!

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