And to find out more about what makes him tick, you can read Questions & Answers on the Biography page.
Now resident with her family in New York, Claire Barclay returns to the house in Scotland where she spent her teenage years. After the sudden death of her mother, Claire becomes increasingly concerned about the welfare of her much-loved and now frail stepfather, Leo Harrison. But his own grown children seem more concerned about preserving their financial assets and smart lifestyles than their father’s health.
The situation is further complicated by Jonas Fairweather, Leo’s neighbour, who has become the old man’s caretaker and confidant. It was he who had broken Claire’s heart at just eighteen and she still carries the hurt of that occurrence deep within her.
Now Jonas is asking her to trust him again on a matter of great urgency. But every one of his actions seems to point to his scheming against Leo and the family.
A Matter of Trust will be published in the UK in April
The Long Way Home will be published in the US in May
June 18th, 2010
Every Wednesday, a big black reminder comes up on my mobile phone to WRITE A BLOG and for the past few months, I’ve just sort of switched it off. Since posting the last one, the UK has gone through an election, I’ve had a book published, some countries are in financial meltdown, and I haven’t really felt inspired to write anything. Well, I could have done, but then I just felt that there are so many people out there expounding their views, I didn’t think it would help any if I added my tuppence ha’penny’s worth. So, in a few sentences, here’s what’s happening.
· I should have a third grandchild in about ten minutes
· Great preparations are being made for the wedding of my younger son, Hugo, at the end of July.
· Also there are plans for a party to celebrate my birthday in August – 30 years for each leg
· We thought the time was right to tie up Shortbread with the Foundation of Creative Writing in Spain, so writing courses will start next year.
· Rosamunde is going to be awarded an honorary law degree from the University of Dundee.
· I wouldn’t like to be Prime Minister Cameron – whoops, I said I wouldn’t do that!
· How lucky was PM Blair to slip away when the going was good – dash it, there I go again!
· Time obviously to stop.
Outside my office, there is a wonderful smell of new mown hay. Hmmmm, as Homer Simpson would say.
April 28th, 2010
There’s always been a bit of a north/south divide in Britain and I’m really talking about the weather here, rather than politics (I know the latter is a little more relevant right now, but I choose rather to cover my ears and sing la-la-la very loudly because come on, we’ve heard it all before.) And I’m also quite peeved that my very own Cake and Eat It Too party, of which I happen to be sole member, has had its ridiculously naïve and completely impractical manifesto nicked in its entirety by Nick Clegg’s Lib Dem party! Now my political views aren’t funny any more.
So I’m going to stick to the weather. Today, there exists a 10 degree Celsius difference between the temperature in the south-east of England and the north of Scotland. People in London cannot believe that we still have the heating on and the drawing room fires lit up here. At the end of last week, the temperature dipped alarmingly, so when I went to pick up my son, his fiancée and her parents from Edinburgh airport (for a Meet the Fockers-type weekend), they sure felt it when we walked out of the terminal building.
Now Kirsty, my wife, had been getting things ready for a couple of days beforehand, so there were flowers in every room, beds turned down, towels on hot rails. She even persuaded me to jack the heating up a couple of notches which is always difficult for a Scotsman.
The next morning, the parents-in-law-to-be came down for breakfast, bearing beautifully wrapped gifts. Mine was a bottle of Nyetimber, an excellent British sparkling wine. It was handed to me and I knew instantly that it was ready to serve, my finger imprints visible on the frosted glass.
“Ah, how kind,” I remarked, “and how clever of you to have put it in the fridge last night.”
“Oh, no,” came the reply, “it’s just been in our bedroom.”
So that was it. The carbon footprint stomped merrily on my house over the weekend and the boiler wheezed to a grateful stop on Sunday evening after my return trip to the airport.
April 12th, 2010
In those timeless words of Hannibal Smith from the ‘A-Team’ (okay, maybe that’s overgilding the lily a bit), “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Not that it came together quite on purpose, but it does seem that the ‘official UK book launch’ of A MATTER OF TRUST in Waterstone’s Dundee next Monday night is going to coincide with the on-lining of the new Shortbread site.
It’s been a funny one, really, both the book and the site being held up; the former for publishing slot reasons, the latter because it turned out much more complicated that we had first envisaged.
I do know, however, that the Shortbread site is going to be phenomenally successful, thanks to the veritable hard graft of Gary Duncan, who has put the whole thing together. I just hope the book has the same promise!
If you just happen to be around Waterstone’s, 35 Commercial Street, Dundee between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on Monday, 19th April, do drop in. It would be good to see you.
March 30th, 2010
My goodness, I’ve just heard it’s my publication day in the US. How exciting! I thought it was the beginning of May, just after the British launch, but I was wrong. Now remember, it’s THE LONG WAY HOME in the States and A MATTER OF TRUST in the UK, so don’t go onto Amazon and buy both books because you’ll be get chronic ‘deja-vue’ when you come to read them! I gave copies to my sister and to my cousin and bit at a finger nail for a week until I’d heard from them.
I think it’s probably going to be OK.
March 2nd, 2010
I was rung up out of the blue the other day by Tom MacAlinden, an old friend of mine.
“Robin, I’ve just tried to get hold of Willie.”
“He’s out of the country, Tom. I got an email from him two days ago.”
“Well, I just had to tell someone this, so I phoned you up.”
“Okay?”
“Right, so I’ve just been into a pub in Broughty Ferry for my lunch and at one end of the bar was this huge soup terrine. Well, it was completely and utterly empty, not a drop of soup in it, and it had a ladle sticking out of it and that didn’t have a drop in it either, and there were no soup bowls, no spoons anywhere near it. Anyway, the barman saw me having a look at it and came up to me and asked if he could help me.
“Got anything to eat, mate?” I asked.
He picked up the lid off the terrine and said, “How about some of the Emperor’s New Soup?”
Good one, isn’t it?!
