What with Brexit and the UK parliament closed to dissent and happenings extraordinaire, as Poirot would say, it’s no wonder I am worried about the Reverend Callum Mackie and young Mark le Mot. The last I saw of them they were on Big Jake’s bench at the end of the Kirkgate. It’s not that, we’re now well into September and Leith is getting cauld, and Jake isn’t getting any younger. Must get them off that bench and somewhere warm. Heard there’s a nice wee cafe up at our parliament, and it’s open for business.

To all my readers who have wished me well recently and who are interested to know when Working for Josh, the fifth novel in the JP Associates series, will be on the shelves, I am sorry, but I cannot yet give a completion date. The work was making good progress until another prolonged period of ill-health, due to my having ME, stopped me in my tracks.

I am hoping that things will get back to normal soon though and I can get back to the keys. I’ll will keep you posted.

Thanks again, Alan

Even the basking sharks just off Leith have stopped basking and are mair than likely lying on the sea bed wie the o too cool lobsters and crabs. Sun worshippers are aw away tae Portobello, cars and biling buses crammed wie bairns still off school.

Me, I’m skulking in the shade, too hot, too wabbit, and certainly too crabbit, for summer.

Like the roughest of seas, they can rise up from nowhere and I can feel overwhelmed. It’s then I think of others; those that came before. My old Dad as a young man, boarding a ship in Leith, in winter, and going off from his family on an old steam ship, to feed the folk under siege in Northern Russia. A quiet, unsung hero of the Arctic Convoys.

But he came home. Yes, quieter still, and without the friends he’d left with, but he came home.

A fallen fledgling seagull has not long landed in the back yard and I cannae get the washing out for being dived on by a very upset Mammy. My tea is in the freezer and the freezer in the hut in the yard, so nae tea for me!

And you’ll never guess what Valerie has just said to Bob James. I can hardly believe it myself.

Dear Readers, for your information only, I recently joined three facebook groups – Lost in a Good Book, the Crime Book Club and The Great American Read Book Club and have found them invaluable as a source for info on what books to read. Brilliant for the avid reader!

My dear readers, thank you for your kind wishes regarding the recent dip in my health. They worked and I’m back writing and 15,000 words into the next novel.

What would I do without you!

I just wanted to say thank you to the reader who took the time to give Treaty of Union another five star review. Glad you enjoyed it.

Well who would believe it? Thirteen thousand words into Working for Josh, and another bout of ill-health. I’ve had to leave a disgruntled Bob with Tod and Tracey in the office and poor Harry in that awful place in George Street.

Don’t panic, I’ll be back soon guys!

As many of my readers are aware, I suffer from Myalgic Encephalitis, ME for short. This week, between the 5th and 12th May there is a global movement of Action Days to highlight the seriousness of the condition. Many people who attend those events take a pair of shoes to put on the ground to represent those sufferers who cannot attend because of the severity of the illness.
Due to the severity of the illness, I am only able to write my novels in periods of remission and can not attend any of the action days. I wish to thank all those who do attend on behalf of me and millions of other sufferers.