BY WOMEN.

Once upon a time I had a day job as an academic lecturing in English and Psychology. Later I did research that was a bit like anthropology: I spent one year in a Glasgow secondary school recording my conversations with teenagers and finding out what it was like to be them. I have always been interested in writing up the lives of other people and giving them a voice.

Then I became ill. Very, very ill. Not just me, but my two sons and several academics in my husband’s department. We all had ME. I tried going back to work after six years but only lasted eighteen months before a severe relapse.

Seven years on, I tried to exit the ME ghetto again. I ran a gentle, weekly creative writing class at The Salisbury Centre in Edinburgh. I discovered that I loved working with writers, was good at mentoring and above all was passionate about good prose. I set up Linen Press as a natural next step.

I have always written. I must be a very slow learner, not recognising that I should have stuck with writing and editing all along. The world of books is where I belong.  It is satisfying to work closely with my authors and to turn a promising manuscript into a beautiful book, and I revel in each unique and challenging publisher-writer relationship.

Recently there have been two big changes in my life. I have bought a half-built house on a rocky, isolated hillside in France, and I have just become the grandmother of twin girls. More stories unfolding.

Picking Daisies…