Category Archives: The Stories We Tell

Aqua vitae

Every two years we run a Dark Angels masterclass at Merton College, Oxford. I am there now. Three nights in a medieval Oxford college is in many ways a retreat from the world; but it’s also a sojourn in one … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Whose truth?

‘I thought it was Mum who had the idea for the bus, not Dad,’ said my brother, in response to my post here last week about our teenage hideout. It’s a common enough exchange between siblings, and one that surely … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Silver linings

It might seem hard to look forward to anything on a day like this – with heavy grey skies, wind and rain, several inches of snow turning to a watery slush and news of snowgates closed on major roads a … Continue reading

More Galleries | 5 Comments

Family trees

Last week I wrote about how a story I had concocted for Turnberry Hotel around a true wartime incident had come to the attention of someone who thought a relative might have been involved in the event. Yesterday I spoke … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Lost and found

Two years ago I wrote some stories for a well-known hotel on the Ayrshire coast, the one acquired just the other day by an American collector of golf courses, a big, suspiciously blond billionaire – oh, all right then, the … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Year of the story

This has been a year of stories – a year in which I’ve come to appreciate like never before the extent to which we lead our lives by, with and through stories. They provide the glue that holds us together, … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Listen to the child

Last weekend we ran part two of our series of personal insight workshops, The Stories We Tell. The first looks at what we can learn about ourselves from the stories we tell about where we have come from. The second … Continue reading

More Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments