I love the idea of having a writing career before I fall off my perch. I have always liked stories, always admired a good storyteller and longed to become one. As a child I told my stories through pictures and later, as an illustrator, I interpreted the words of others before daring to link my own words with my own pictures.
I graduated from Glasgow School of Art and earned my corn as a graphic designer and illustrator before becoming a design lecturer. I liked being around the students, the bureaucracy less so.
When I retired, I trained as a holistic therapist and now I teach a variety of therapies throughout Lanarkshire, supported by my patient husband Robert, my two children and two grandchildren.
I have written lots of short stories, which have been published in anthologies and magazines, and I have also ghost-written a book, now published – but as a ghost, I must say nothing…
Changed Times is my first published novel. I have several unpublished. Probably best left that way…
It is the first part of a trilogy, about a farmer called John Steel, who gets caught up in the Covenanting battles of turbulent 17th century Scotland.
John is a real man – Steel’s Cross at the head of Lanark Brae is named after him, so he was important. I discovered him while researching my local history – I live in Clydesdale, a big Covenanting area – with a view to producing a factual leaflet for tourists.
He was a brave man who never sought revenge for being thrown out of his home and hunted for 10 years.
One of his children was born on the moor in the month of February and only survived when a shepherd helped the family, wrapping the baby in moss and taking her back to his hut on the moor.
John was an unusual man for his time – for any time, I reckon.
To research the books, I joined the Scottish Covenanting Memorial Association.
I tramped the moors, got lost in mists and soaked along the way, tracked down old maps and place names and visited battle sites.
I visited old working mills and the Covenanting House at Biggar, where the trust allowed me a full morning in it on my own taking photos and getting a feel for the period.
I formed a picture of John and allowed my imagination to do the rest. There is nothing online about him – everything is on paper, and most of it handwritten. His birth and death dates are not known, exactly, and he is buried in Lesmahagow Old Parish Churchyard under a plain 'thruchstane' with neither name nor date.
In the book some characters, like John Graham of Claverhouse, Lord Ross, and the Earl of Airlie, are based on fact but others are made up – my favourite is a disgusting old tinker called Sam Galbraith. I did a Masters of Literature degree at Stirling University while I was researching the book, and my fellow students loved the character of Sam too.
It has taken me five years to bring John’s story to life but I have loved every fascinating minute.
Hopefully my trilogy will bring a rather hidden historical area to life and persuade others to see how exciting it is.
Changed Times, the first part of the Killing Times trilogy of historical novels by Ethyl Smith, published by Thunderpoint Publishing, is on sale now.
Ann Fotheringham
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