This story was scribed while in Gran Canaria, while people-watching, in a local restaurant.

Beside us at the next table, a lovely American couple ordered a bottle of expensive wine. (You can read about this in the final few paragraphs.)

The chap looked to me as if he was an ‘academic’.

He and his lady companion, both in their fifties, were ‘too friendly and polite to each other’ to be married, was my take.

I was intrigued.

Read on....

This tale was penned for our Writers’ Circus group on the topic: “the room was cold”.

It is about a group of retired friends who share a passion for wildlife photography. They make a journey from Yorkshire to a luxury eco-lodge north of Inverness in search of stills and videos to exhibit at the January meeting of their photography club.

Although the weather id dreadful, they keep going, determined to make the most of their short winter break to the wilds of Scotland.

Note: There is another Devil’s Elbow in Scotland, on the dangerous high pass route between Glen Shee and Braemar, a road subject to frequent closures during winter.

This story is about a quite different Devil’s Elbow.

This story was written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge on the topic of ‘dreaming’.

It was largely tapped out on my iPad while we were on holiday at Siverdyke Caravan Park at Cellardyke, one of a string of coastal villages which form the East Nuke of Fife and a short walk from the village of Kilrenny which features in the story.

Kilrenny (with nearby Anstruther and Cellardyke) is ‘twinned’ with Bapaume, a small industrial town in North-East France.

The story is about a spinster lady who lives in Kilrenny. She is down on her luck but still struggling to keep up appearances.

Read on.

This is a tale about two people who meet under unusual circumstances. Both of them are slightly odd, off beat.

The setting is a fictitious island in the Outer Hebrides.

It was started several years ago, sparked by a topic from the Writers’ Circus entitled “familiar”.

I like to think of it as a modern-day Peoples’ Friend story, the sort of story my Mum would have enjoyed.

Special thanks are due to my friend Kareth Paterson who spent many long hours editing this tale, contributing corrections and suggesting ideas which shaped the final outcome.

This story was started while we were visiting the Rosemarkie Caravan Site in July 2022.

The piece is in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge to write ‘a shaggy doggy story’.

There are dolphins most days at Chanonry Point which juts out into the Moray Firth.

Read on and learn what happened one day in July.

Fankle is a Scottish word, meaning ‘in a tangle’.