Month: October 2018

After an amazing year touring the Sly Cooking book and exhibition, I’ve been shortlisted for the Scottish Gaelic Award for arts and culture! It’s an honour, and actually dumbfounding, to be shortlisted alongside theatre company Theatre Gu Leòr and event programmers Ceòl ‘s Craic.

My theory is that Fr Allan is a good man to have on your side. After all, Netty’s tree, which he planted himself in Eriskay, recently became Scotland’s Tree of the Year!

My book and exhibition enjoyed a very warm welcome in Bowmore, as part of the Islay Book Festival. In fact I was told Sly Cooking had become something of a “cult” on the island! I had a lovely time with the children at Bun-Sgoil Bhogha Mòr, and enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm for Fr Allan’s words in the public session too.

The organiser of the festival, Isla Rosser-Owen, told BBC Alba, “I’ve had a number of people come up to me to say, how they’re not Gaelic-speaking at all, they’re not necessarily even interested in Gaelic, but having the exhibition here has inspired them to buy her book and learn a bit more about the words.”

That’s exactly what I want to hear.

The exhibition is off to Tarbert next, for Tarbert Book Festival, 26-28 October 2018.