creative non-fiction

New Essay Published on THE CLEARING

/ isgfreelance / Leave a comment

‘I was left breathless by the wind – and the view – and Lewis took on a suddenly different feel: an awe-inspiring island of sense and frightening clarity; a lost world of elements; a dreamed-of place caught between sea and sky.’

A new essay on The Clearing – Little Toller Books’ online journal of Nature, Landscape and Place. 

‘Between Sea and Sky’ comes out of a research trip to Lewis back in 2022 and explores the changing land use on the islands. I met with a modern day crofter who, like many new generation crofters, is moving away from traditional crofting practices and using her land to plant native woodland instead of keeping livestock. She talked movingly about her experience relocating to and living on the islands, and of the deep connection she has found with the land. 

I had a great stay on Lewis and wrote a lot about my time there – it was a homecoming of sorts – a return – having lived in Stornoway for a while back in the mid-noughties. It’s not an easy place to live, especially as an incomer, but it’s a place I keep going back to. 

Thanks as ever to editor Jon Woolcott and to crofter Susanne Erbida for taking time to meet with me during my visit.

You can read the essay through the link below. I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Between Sea and Sky

elm is me and I am elm

/ isgfreelance / Leave a comment

“Where do the trees end and I begin? Where is the boundary between tree, roots, soil, air, my breathing and thinking and being? It is not just a hippy idea of ‘oneness’, this, a flaky new age folksy feeling that yes, we are all connected, but an intellectual, phenomenological and objective reality. Everything really is whole within the multitudinous, messy complexity of everything.”

An extract from my essay ‘elm is me and I am elm’ in the Paperboats Zine, Issue 5, released for Earth Day 2025.

The essay explores our deep entanglements with Nature through the presence, folklore and mythology of the wych elm, and reconsiders the false boundaries between the human and non-human worlds. It goes on to ask how we might incorporate the interrelationships we have with Nature in our thinking and planning, bringing in ideas found in ecology and more radical urban design.

I first wrote about the wych elm here on Elsewhere: A Journal of Place.

Issue 5 of the Paperboats Zine as a whole is on the theme of ‘Our Power – Our Planet’ and is edited by Polly Pullar and Linda Cracknell.

‘Power is addressed in the repercussions of our energy choices, but also in humans working together for common good and in sometimes relinquishing control so other species and habitats can flourish.’

The editors, Paperboats Zine Issue 5.

There is a fantastic range of writing in this issue, by some wonderful writers, with words from:

Margaret Elphinstone, Jonathan Clark, Hayli McClain, Charlie Gracie, Rebecca Stonehill, Anthony McCluskey, Lesley Harrison, Aidan Semmens, Victoria NicIomhair, Donald S Murray, Iona Macduff, Jeff Skinner, Craig Dobson, Angela Gilchrist, Joshua Adam Walker, Owen Gallagher, Kat Hill, Chris Cottom & Sarah Wallis.

Head to Paperboats.org/zine to read this and previous issues.

Latest Paperboats Podcast Live

/ isgfreelance / Leave a comment

In the latest episode of the Paperboats Podcast I speak with naturalist, photographer and nature writer, Polly Pullar.

Polly talks about her early life growing up in Ardnamurchan on the west coast of Scotland, how her love of nature and wildlife brought her solace through a difficult period and continues to inspire her passionately today. She discusses the plight of Scotland’s wildlife under the pressures of climate change and habitat loss, and reads from her Paperboats Zine piece, ‘A Solan Goose Summer,’ which highlights how climate change, the avian bird-flu epidemic, and increasing food scarcity is threatening this wonderful seabird.

Polly has regular columns in numerous magazines including The Scots Magazine and BBC Wildlife Magazine, and features in the Paperboats Zine. Her most recent book, The Horizontal Oak – A Life in Nature, was published by Birlinn in 2022. 

I had a great chat with Polly. Her love of nature and her zest for life is infectious, so I hope you’ll give this episode a listen, and if you enjoy it, please do like and subscribe! 

If you’re concerned about climate change, want to delve further into the issues surrounding it, and like great writing, the Paperboats Podcast brings you a host of fantastic nature writers. 

Find it on your preferred platform or head to Paperboats Podcasts and follow the links from there.

Enjoy.

The Flow Country

/ isgfreelance / Leave a comment

EPISODE 2 OF THE PAPERBOATS PODCAST, WITH LINDA CRACKNELL

Episode 2 of the Paperboats podcast with author Linda Cracknell is available from today.

I talk with Linda about Scotland’s Flow Country, her book Doubling Back, and how important walking is to her writing practice.

Linda reads an extract from the new edition of Doubling Back, published by Saraband in May 2024 and a wonderful book exploring a range of diverse landscapes, places, and paths as memory.

Linda also highlights how important the peatbogs of Caithness in Sutherland – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site – are in alleviating the impacts of climate change, and how vulnerable they have been to commercial forestry practices and land misuse. She describes her time spent in the Flow Country in writing the new chapter of her book, her life-long relationship with walking, and the importance of landscape and place to her work. 

Available across all platforms and streaming now, follow and subscribe to keep up with all future episodes.

Check it out at paperboats.org

Podcast on Writing about Nature and Environment launched today

/ isgfreelance / Leave a comment

I’ve been working with Paperboats Writers and Station House Media Unit (SHMU) on a new monthly podcast launched officially today!

If you’re not familiar with Paperboats Writers, they’re a fantastic group of writers working across Scotland (and beyond) to highlight the impacts of climate change, the ecological collapse we’re all witness to, and the things we can do to help bring about positive change.

In each episode I meet with a different writer from the Paperboats collective. We discuss their work, and the issues they write about.

In Ep.1 I talk with Paperboats co-founders, author Sandy Winterbottom and Scots writer and poet Elaine Morrison.

We hear Scotland’s Makar Kathleen Jamie (National Poet for Scotland 2021 – 2024) read her inspirational poem ‘What the Clyde Said, After Cop 26’, discuss the formation of Paperboats Writers, the importance of a Just Transition, and the work of Global Justice Now and the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.

In upcoming episodes I’ll be talking with author Linda Cracknell about the Flow Country and her book Doubling Back, and with Nature Writer and photographer Polly Pullar about the plight of the gannet and Polly’s life-long relationship with wildlife.

Many more fantastic Nature Writers to feature in the coming months, so I hope you’ll give it a listen, and follow and subscribe to keep up with future episodes.

Available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple and YouTube.