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This weekend I’m chairing two events at the Winter Words book festival in Pitlochry. The authors have a couple of things in common. They both come from the Northern Isles, one from Orkney, one from Shetland. And they are both, … Continue reading
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February is a month to be endured. As a student in a drafty rented farmhouse outside Aberdeen in 1970, we were visited one freezing February day by a particularly foul-tempered tradesman who had come to do work on the house. … Continue reading
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I’ve been listening to the 2025 BBC Reith Lectures, given by Rutger Bregman, the young Dutch historian who became an international sensation in 2019 after standing up at the Davos World Economic Forum and berating a room full of billionaires for … Continue reading
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I seem to be losing people. In the last few months two childhood friends, both exact contemporaries of mine, have gone. Three years ago, it was my greatest childhood friend. All too early. I don’t wish to be maudlin, simply … Continue reading
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I recently watched a clip of a Native American elder in a wheelchair being jostled by New York police during a protest against ICE. Speaking to a reporter he said that it pained him to be there in a moment … Continue reading
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I’m back in a place I love. I haven’t been here for eight years and my first impression on arrival was how beautiful it is. I had forgotten. An hour north of Seville, tucked into the side of a wooded … Continue reading
For a dozen years, from the early nineties, my brother Simon and I ran a dance band. We had played together as children and teenagers but our adult lives had taken us in different directions and it was only when … Continue reading
Before the pandemic I used to go into Edinburgh quite regularly. We have a railway station within walking distance of our house and it was a pleasant hour-and-a-half journey, down to Perth, through Fife and along the coast of the … Continue reading
(Also available as a podcast here) Two weeks ago I wrote about how I was experiencing life in lockdown. This post reached the second-largest number of readers I’ve ever had, the largest being for the post I wrote the day … Continue reading
The story of Jamie's extraordinary great-great-uncle. Published June 2023 by Scotland Street Press.
Making a deeper connection with words - the acclaimed creative writing programme
12 chapters, 12 authors, the collective wisdom from 15 years of running courses around the world
A masterclass in business writing and communication from John Simmons and Jamie Jauncey.
A gripping story of conflict in a Scotland of the not-too-distant future
A Few Kind Words 