Category Archives: Stories

Halfway to heaven

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

Watching the YouTube film of my Latin American trip opened the floodgates again. There are still so many moments that remain clearly imprinted on my memory, almost forty years later: sailing to the Galapagos Islands on a cargo steamer, driving … Continue reading →

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Mind the gaps

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

Last Saturday I took part in the final event of the 26 Treasures Scotland project, chairing a panel discussion at the Winter Words book festival in the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. February 4 is a date which, since university days, I … Continue reading →

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Close encounter

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

In December 1972 I quit my job at Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly and flew to Argentina with my girlfriend. There we met up with 30 other travellers of all nationalities and stripes who had signed up for a trip with … Continue reading →

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Life and Fate

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Jamie Jauncey

We’re two weeks into the new year and stories are everywhere, it seems. There’s Melvyn Bragg and his Radio 4 series on the history of literature. It was the 4,000 year-old Sumerian epic, Gilgamesh, that set humanity off on its story-telling … Continue reading →

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26 Treasures Unbound

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Jamie Jauncey

A little over a year ago I went to see Sandy Richardson, head of development at the National Museum of Scotland, to tell him about the 26 Treasures project and to ask if he might be interested in helping us … Continue reading →

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Bring on the clowns

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Jamie Jauncey

Here’s a terrific story that surfaced in The Guardian this week in the context of the Pakistan match-fixing convictions, and the fact that corruption and gambling in Asian cricket is seen as a cultural problem. In 1995 a new mayor took office … Continue reading →

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The rabble

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Jamie Jauncey

There was a time when I imagined that in my sixties life would have started to become a pleasant, carefree stroll through the sunlit uplands. Ah well … This is what has been competing for space in my head this … Continue reading →

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A small rebellion

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Jamie Jauncey

The ripples from our last Dark Angels course continue to spread. Two weeks after leaving Inverness-shire, the glue that binds the group together seems to be setting firmer rather than weakening, as is more often the case. Our inboxes bulge … Continue reading →

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Autumn tales

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Jamie Jauncey

I often write this on the train on the way back from Edinburgh. It’s a picturesque journey, across the Forth Bridge and east along the Fife coast, then inland through the soft, fertile farmland of central Fife, a short climb … Continue reading →

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My friend the visionary

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Jamie Jauncey

Almost exactly forty years ago to this day I started my first job in London. Improbable as it seems now, it was as an articled clerk with one of the big London-Scottish firms of accountants. I’ve written about this in … Continue reading →

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