After Dee the Business was published, Midstocket Church in Aberdeen asked me to write a Doric version of The Lord’s Prayer Oor Faither – which was published in the Church magazine. In August 2009, Michelle van Sittert, the wife of the minister in Aberchirder (or Foggieloan as it is known locally), produced both a crocheted and embroidered version of the prayer. Both achieved prize-winning success for her at the “Foggie Flower Show“ that month. The version has been used by Scots in churches in New Zealand, South Africa and America since then.
Fin A’m Awa – after “When I am Dead” by Hugh Barrie, from Poems of the Scottish Hills, edited by Hamish Brown (AUP) – I found a hand-written copy of the original poem in my father’s papers after he died. You can read my version at Aberdeen University’s Elphinstone Kist.
Published in May 2025: “Gallipoli: Letters from the Front 1915-1916” is now available from Amazon (ISBN: 9798309672509) – see https://amzn.to/3Hiw0Od. The book contains nearly one hundred letters written home to Edinburgh by (my uncle) Charles M Coutts of the 4th Battalion Royal Scots during the Gallipoli Campaign in WWI.