Simon Varwell's Blog, page 13

Three islands

Last week I wason the beautiful island of Islay, also taking in day trips to Colonsay and Jura. It was a week of delicious food, cracking beer, and of course the famous whisky.

The tripwas all in the name of research, however, as I was able to visit two of the breweries from the list that forms the basis of my intended next book.

I’ve just uploaded my photos from the trip to Flickr. Unfortunately I’m not convinced they’re all that brilliant.

Though the three islands were stunning in their ow...

Something’s missing

As I mentioned in the latest edition of my email newsletter, I ran a six-week series of travel writing workshops at Inverness Prison earlier this year. It was a fascinating experience, butI’ll not regurgitatewhat I said about it in my newsletter.

Also contained in my newsletter was my reading list for the workshops, in case anyone was interested in some new reading material. I chose the books not because they were my favourites (though most are), but because between them all they represented...

Introducing my next project

If you subscribe to my blog via email (see way down on the side bar on the right) or an RSS reader, and you don’t subscribe to my newsletter, then you might have missed my latest mission, and hopefully next book.

Over the next couple of years I’m aiming to travel to all Scotland’s island breweries. There are eleven that I know of, and it’s a great way of visiting some of Scotland’s most beautiful and often rarely visited corners. As well as researching some absolutely lovely beer.

The provision...

A year in writing

2014 has been a busy and exciting year on a number of fronts.

Following the publication of The Return of The Mullet Hunter on Kindle towards the end of 2013, one of 2014’s first projects was releasing it in paperback and on Kobo (which will also work on iBooks and other epub formats). This was definitely a case of the difficult second album, and I wish it had been less than nearly four years since the first book in the series Up The Creek Without a Mullet came out, but you can’t have everythin...

Facebook is dead, long live the newsletter

I’ve finally got round to doing something I’ve been aiming to do for ages: set up an author newsletter.

The idea is you sign up (or not, as is your choice) and I send an occasional newsletter about my travel writing and anything else related to that.

It’s a more or less direct replacement for my author Facebook page, which I have been becoming increasingly frustrated with. It’s nothing to do with the page itself, but more to do with Facebook generally. There are plenty reasons to dislike Facebo...

Islonia

I had no idea I was so close to the border. Frankly, I didn’t even know there was a border until I saw a sign, and my curiosity led me through a gate and down a hill along a rough path.

My route wasslippery in places, and overgrown. There was no sign of life, however, except for distant houses across the bay, bold against the brown textures of the hillsides and the grey of the sky. Coming to what I now knew to be the edge of Scotland, I approached the bridge: a low wooden structure that snaked...

True Highlands reviewed

Iwas intrigueda while ago to stumble across plans for a new tourist information website for the Highlands called True Highlands.

Admittedly, I was sceptical when I signed up for updates. It’s notoriously hard to express everything about the Highlands in a manner that is full, engaging and not tired or cliched. And, I must confess, the last Highlands tourism site I reviewed got a bit of a beating.

But when I got notification that True Highlands had had a “soft launch” (instant brownie points for...

Fochabers no more

Should you ever have occasion to find yourself in the Morayshire town of Fochabers – and frankly why wouldn’t you? – then you willfind yourself drawn to its folk museum. Frankly, other than a garden centre there’ll not be a lot else to grab you.

Residing in a converted church, Fochabers Folk Museum and Heritage Centre isa curious jumble, an Aladdin’s cave of bizarre and diverse artefacts that for all their disjointed presentation really do paint a vivid and informative picture of the town and...

Trouble brewing

For a city of its size, regional importance and fame, Inverness has a shoddy offering of wet weather options for tourists.

Granted, one of Inverness’s strengths is that it ishandy for much of the best of Scotland – Loch Ness, the Cairngorms, great walking opportunities, and access to a seemingly endless choice of beautiful scenery. And to say that the best thing going for Inverness is all the other places you can easily get to isn’t meant to be faint praise.

Howeverthe city struggles to be a to...

Ding, ding!

A couple of years ago I was on a bus in Edinburgh, on my way back to the city centre from (I think) a conference somewhere on the outskirts.

As every single conversation in Edinburgh has done for the last few years, my chat with the person next to me turned to trams, with a resigned discussion about the delays caused by the considerable upheaval that the city’s tram project brought about.

Well, to be accurate it wasn’t the project itself that caused the upheaval: the problem was the its gross m...