Working Title: ‘Tartan Snow, Battle for the Pistes’
I’m currently writing an autobiography set around my life on and around Scotland’s ski slopes.
It may surprise many to know that skiing & snowboarding in Scotland actually exist and that scandal, and corruption lay so deeply embedded in the foundations, that really large amounts of money were lost and political reputations foundered.
Despite it all, somehow Scottish enthusiasm has won through borne on the shoulders of some very enthusiastic and unlikely characters.
Those who think that winter sports really are the province of the Alpine nations and Scandinavia, will be surprised at the quality, challenge and variety of the Scottish offering to such an extent that those in the know, think nothing of travelling cross the world to sample its unlikely pleasures.
The story goes from homemade corrugated plastic skis on the Sussex South Downs via the boardrooms of the rich and famous, severe windchill and risk to life to the birth of realistic Winter Olympic hope.
The biggest surprise to many will be the knowledge that one area in Scotland are listed among the World’s top 100 ski runs!
The author has witnessed it all and more over six decades success, failure, triumph and tragedy. Publication TBA
Future Titles
In Research: ‘Conan Doyle on Skis’
The creator of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ was a pioneer skier credited with bringing skiing to Switzerland.
There is a lot to uncover about this complex and at times contradictory man and why he took to skiing and its effect on him and the future of skiing.
The trail leads from Edinburgh to Norway and the Alps, where another significant literary figure may have had an impact.
This, in itself, is unfolding much like the good Doctor Watson’s account of how an impenetrable mystery is solved by persistence and an unwillingness to give up.
