Category Archives: Scotland

Don Roberto and Me

Posted on August 2, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

For the last few months I’ve found it almost impossible to keep current events from my mind for very long. There’s a morbid fascination in the catastrophe that is British politics. Each time I think it couldn’t get any worse, … Continue reading →

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Across the great divide

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

I’m watching Debate Night, the new BBC Scotland channel’s answer to Question Time. It serves to underline a question I have been asking myself more and more frequently in recent months: how do we engage with people who hold diametrically … Continue reading →

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Acts of kindness

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

In late January 1973 I arrived in Chile overland from Argentina. I was travelling with a group organised by the adventure company, Encounter Overland, whose regular itinerary, up until that point, had been the hippy trail from London to Kabul. … Continue reading →

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Close encounters

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

I spent last night with a friend in Edinburgh. This morning, boarding a bus into the west end, I spotted a vacant seat next to an attractive young black woman with a cloud of hair. As I sat down I … Continue reading →

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Long division

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Jamie Jauncey

A woman got onto the train the other day and sat down opposite me. She was fifty-ish, tanned and smartly dressed. She had come from the airport and was breathless. We chatted and I learned that she had been to … Continue reading →

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Poetry path

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Jamie Jauncey

In the hills a few miles outside our village of Birnam is a Camphill community. Here, on the Corbenic estate, 27 adults with learning difficulties live with their carers and a number of volunteers in 50 acres of agricultural land, … Continue reading →

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In memoriam

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Jamie Jauncey

It has become a cliché of the information age that we remember where we were when we learned of certain events, the death of JFK or John Lennon for example. On each occasion there was something so shocking in the … Continue reading →

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Second wind

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Jamie Jauncey

I’ve mentioned here my friend and neighbour, Fiona Ritchie, before. Fiona is an authority on the traditional music of Scotland and Ireland. From her tiny studio in Dunkeld she presents the most-listened-to Celtic music programme on US radio, the weekly … Continue reading →

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True stories

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Jamie Jauncey

Last weekend we ran a The Stories We Tell workshop for a group of people who were returning to us for the third time. Of the many striking things about the weekend, the one that most remains with me now … Continue reading →

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Webster’s Day

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Jamie Jauncey

When I was a student I lived with four friends on a farm about seven miles out of Aberdeen. Our landlord, who was the uncle of one of the friends, lived on another farm, a few miles away, and we … Continue reading →

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