Road Blog # 5 Wick – Kirkwall & Home...

Here's Niall Campbell on the Hamnavoe, on the way to Stromness. Keep an eye on him, I would – after sharing two readings with him, I can see why he's doing so well, having won this year Eric Gregory Award, a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, and with a pamphlet forthcoming with the excellent Happenstance Press, who also publish Gill Andrews. (Gill wrote 'Tom Potter', one of my Best Scottish Poems 2010). Niall is having his own Poet's Tour in October (scroll down for the dates), so catch him in Inverness, Skye, Lochmaddy or Ullapool if you can...

I gave a workshop at breakneck speed in Wick, having driven from Scourie along the North Coast on a persistently rainy day. I did get a clammy walk at Faraid Head and a hot chocolate at the Loch Croispol Bookshop and Cafe, and snacked as I travelled east on fairly elderly date slices and Manchego. Nice to meet some Wick writers and read in the lovely Fergus Gallery above the Library, and then it was the early boat to Stromness and a slow drive to Kirkwall, detouring by Scapa Flow and the Italian Chapel. VERY TIRED. Sat and stared into middle distance at The Reel for a few hours in the afternoon...and revived with hot pot at Judith Glue before reading at the St Magnus Centre with Niall, and the Orkney poet Morag MacInnes, whose performance is always explosive. She's a fantastic reader of her work – that night, from her Hansel Cooperative Press pamphlet, Alias Isobel, (audio clips here) and from These Islands We Sing.

This morning I finally tottered off the Hrossey in Lerwick, and drove home and unpacked the car. The cat is preparing himself to forgive me, as Uncle Monty put it in Withnail and I, the pressure has been boosted in the boiler (it goes into hibernation when neglected), and there's three days to clean, do laundry and catch up with friends, emails and work before I head off again. I'll make one final post to list the books bought, borrowed and gifted over the last two weeks. Many thanks to Peter Urpeth for the 'Poet's Tour' and to all the folk who put me up, fed me, took part in events and shared their work...