Magazine contributions

Over the last few years, I have contributed a number of articles to Edinburgh’s most prestigious magazine, The Edinburgh Life. 1 The subjects of my articles in this bi-monthly magazine are of a historical nature, specifically areas that I have a keen interest in; old Edinburgh and Leith and Aerial Photography. My first published book was called Old Edinburgh; Views from above – A series of oblique air photos of Edinburgh taken in 1930. Then I went on to publish 3 fictional paperbacks about Sailing in the West of Scotland. These days, as I approach my 90th birthday, in October … Continue reading Magazine contributions

Dispatch Trophy 1890

THE BIRTH OF ‘THE BRAIDS’ AND THE DISPATCH TROPHY **Johnny Jones discovers some photographic golfing treasures** A few years ago, while leafing through some old photograph albums piled up on a battered chair in an antique shop, three pages of sepia photographs, showing crowds of people watching golfers, caught the author’s eye. The photographs were all quarter-plate size and apart from the pencilled date of 1890 there were no other identifying marks. However, I did recognise the distinctive clubhouse at the Braid Hills Golf Course, Edinburgh, Scotland and given the number of spectators, it was obvious these photos had been … Continue reading Dispatch Trophy 1890

Gift idea for Christmas

With Christmas fast approaching, and a lot of uncertainty about how the pandemic is going to affect our Postal services, why not consider purchasing one or more of the books as a gift for someone here or abroad? A Storm in Any Port – Have a read of the Prologue  – Click here Set principally in Scotland’s beautiful Western Isles with side trips to Hong Kong, the Lake District and the Balearic Islands, the narrative is an expose of an ambitious, accident prone Scot with a sailing bug who leads his scallywag crew and breathes life, fun and nostalgia into … Continue reading Gift idea for Christmas

Deep Water – Chum Hong Kok

  Next day their wives tried to press-gang the boys into going on a family day out to the GCHQ Club at Chum Hong Kok, a small resort on the south side of Victoria Island. Here in its  spacious grounds the traditional colonial club atmosphere still survived. The members could, swim in an open air pool, play tennis on well kept courts, eat in a fine restaurant or just have a picnic. In this comfortable home from home environment, the families of the British civilian and armed forces community were able to relax, or just top up their tans. However, … Continue reading Deep Water – Chum Hong Kok

Sailing the South China Seas – Hong Kong

In his early thirties, Zander was posted to the Crown Colony of Hong Kong as the Senior Ranking Engineering Civil Servant attached to the naval dockyard there, HMS Tamar. His workload left him with a fair amount of leisure time, with the salary to enjoy it. At last he had all the ingredients in place to follow his dreams; for the first time in his life Zander would be able to do some serious sailing. Not long after taking up residence with his wife, Jane and their young family in the plush Government flat allocated to them, the former acting … Continue reading Sailing the South China Seas – Hong Kong

The Viral Spark

The Viral Spark The trigger for a second wave of a viral infection can be likened to the aftermath of an enormous inferno that has gobbled up everything in its devastating path and the flames of which appear to be exhausted, completely damped down and no longer active. Unseen and deep within the blackened mass, lie embers that need only the slightest puff of wind for them to spring back to life and initiate a recurrence of the dreadful scenario. It is in that fatal instant, when the firefighters take their eyes off the blackened carnage, that a little flame … Continue reading The Viral Spark

The Worm Turns – Crinan

On a fine, if lightly clouded, blue-skied day, the puffer was tied up to the stone jetty outside the western basin of the Crinan Canal, ready to fulfil a charter. To the west of her, the sea spread away over the Sound of Jura towards the shimmering outline of the blue-grey mountains that marked the islands of Jura and Scarba. On board, the crew was awaiting the arrival of the client, top man of a well-known international corporation. He and the last of his guests were driving over by car from Edinburgh. As soon as they arrived, the puffer would … Continue reading The Worm Turns – Crinan

Murdo’s Measure  – Foyers (Loch Ness)

Murdo’s Measure  – Foyers (Loch Ness) Scratched into the surface of the bar counter in the Foyers Hotel, is a strange scale. At just over two feet long, it has marks across it, dividing it into a number of units of irregular width. Under it are scratched two lengthwise arrows, one with a capital ‘H’ pointing left, the other a capital ‘T’ pointing right. Written in uneven letters in chalk underneath this puzzling piece of primitive art is the title, ‘Murdo’s Measure’. Any visitor intrigued by this almost indecipherable marking and curious to know what it was for, would be … Continue reading Murdo’s Measure  – Foyers (Loch Ness)

Schellenberg’s Rolls Royce in Eigg

Keith Shellenberg’s Rolls Royce Station Wagon, which was burnt to a shell not long after this photograph was taken. He was known for his legal disputes related to his ownership of the Scottish island of Eigg. Shellenberg also stood in the 1964 UK general election in Richmond (Yorks) and the October 1974 UK general election in Moray and Nairn as a Liberal candidate. Schellenberg competed in the two-man and the four-man Bobsleigh events at the 1956 Winter Olympics.  He also competed in the men’s singles in the luge at the 1964 Winter Olympics. He also played on the Yorkshire rugby … Continue reading Schellenberg’s Rolls Royce in Eigg

Visual help

I recently heard from a friend who practices the New Age philosophy called the Law of Attraction. You visualize a wish in your mind and ‘attract’ it to come to you. He was adamant that can work for anyone, and in hearing that the sale of my first book in the Zander Trilogy was not selling by the dozen, as I hoped, he suggested that I try out this new philosophy and see where it takes me. So, please bear with me here as I put this into practice. How do I get thousands of sales of my book? Well, … Continue reading Visual help