Category Archives: Stories

Five lessons

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

We never stop learning. A cliché, but only because it’s true, or at least should be. So I thought it might be instructive to reflect on a few personal highlights of the past year by asking myself what I have … Continue reading →

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Dark matter

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

I’ve been doing some pre-Christmas stock-taking. It’s not an inventory of goods, though the stock in question is certainly good, but of assets of a less tangible kind: the writing generated on Dark Angels courses throughout the year, which I … Continue reading →

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Big magic

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

There’s an extraordinary free newsletter that I have been following for a year or so, called Brain Pickings. I would describe it, somewhat inadequately, as a weekly compendium of excerpts from the best writing by the best thinkers, in the … Continue reading →

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The Weight

Posted on November 27, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

Sometimes you just have to start writing. I’m sorry if there’s a sense of déjà vu about those seven words, but this is another of those increasingly frequent days when as the (self-inflicted) deadline approaches I realise I have not … Continue reading →

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The stories we tell

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

Here is a story. Fifteen years ago, Catherine Lockerbie, then the literary editor of The Scotsman, was appointed director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. For several years I had regularly written book reviews for her. We had also sat … Continue reading →

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Magic in Bosa

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

In the narrow alley outside his guest house, Paolo reads the words on my T-shirt. ‘En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme…’ It’s the opening paragraph of Don Quixote. I explain that I’m wearing the … Continue reading →

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Keeping faith

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

There’s always much activity in the first couple of days after a course. As well as the usual admin, there’s the electronic bustle of people sharing photos, expressing appreciation, acknowledging achievements and cementing new friendships. This year has been no … Continue reading →

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Family affair

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

Yesterday I went to visit Scotland’s oldest family-owned business. In their industrial unit in Auchtermuchty, Fife, they have a pair of iron beam scales (a simple weighing device) stamped with the date 1715. These are presumed to have been made … Continue reading →

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Be prepared

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

It’s nearly book festival time again – by which I mean the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Every August, Charlotte Square Gardens sprout canvas and are transformed into a kind of intellectual carnival of some 800 events that seem between them … Continue reading →

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Six-letter word

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Jamie Jauncey

I have a dilemma. It involves a song and a six-letter word. It’s a song I’ve always loved, not just because of its melody and rolling New Orleans piano style, but because of its bitingly brilliant irony. The dilemma arises … Continue reading →

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