Hamish Macdonald – Författare

These two novellas - on related themes but very different in approach and narrative voice - are bound back to back or 'heelstergowdie', the Scots for 'back to front' or 'head over heels'. Loon, by Sheena Blackhall, tells the story of Donnie Paterson and how his troubled life is turned around by the discovery of his missing grandfather in a retirement home and a holiday in the Highlands where he hears a strange story that becomes the key to solving his problems. In Gilbert McGlinchy, by Hamish MacDonald, the eponymous narrator has the weight of the world's woes on his shoulders so sets out to make his drab Clydebank surroundings exotic by embarking on a story-telling journey - the rationale for which only slowly unfolds. Presented in a single volume, these two novellas meet, quite literally, halfway.

‘The crossbill is a bonny birdAn she sings wi a guid Scots tongueJip-jip-jipA’ll gie ye gipGin ye meddle wi me nor ma young’As a result of his travels across the North American continent in the eighteenth century Alexander Wilson pioneered the science of ornithological writing and illustration, becoming an inspiration for most of the ornithological works which followed.This new book celebrates the artwork of Alexander Wilson by reproducing his illustrations alongside new poems in Scots by Hamish MacDonald, looking at the habits, habitats, and characteristics of birds.