“Use it or lose it”, she said, before writing “purple prose” or “too subjective”in the margins.
“You’ve got too much imagination”, he said. “Stick to the task in hand”.
“Would someone please teach Alan about metaphysical poetry”, he said, “he has never heard of it”! They all laughed.
And the signs and symbols in the margins kept on growing. But when Juliana came, July I think it was, her gardener cut, with his scythe, all the weeds that had grown up in the eraducation garden.
She sang, somewhere in the distance, and I could hear her. And her song was no lullaby of the soul, and I was no longer marginalised.
Before graduating in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh in 1995, I worked as a master joiner/carpenter. Following graduation from university, I studied for a post-graduate diploma in Community Education and worked as a literacy tutor in Community Learning and Development. I have gained education awards and published an academic paper on the use of Scots language in family literacy work. I have produced teachers' notes for the Scottish Book Trust.
My first work of fiction, Justified Sinner, was completed in 2016. Since then I have published three more novels in the JP Associate series.
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