Tyrant Of The Glen

A Scottish village is surrounded by ancient monuments and invisible links to a dark past.

Robbie Brechin had a childhood steeped in British comics like The Beezer or The Dandy. In fact, DC Thomson and its imaginative, whimsical contributors were arguably the most influential.

Early books: Enid Blyton. Robert Louis Stevenson and Rider Haggard. Later: Jack Kerouac, Hunter S Thompson, Graham Greene, Tom Sharpe, Spike Milligan, Raymond Chandler, James Lee Burke, Eveline Waugh, Peter Ackroyd, Hilary Mantel, Robert Caro and Jeremy Clarkson.

I was able to leave the very weak scent of a few of my literary heroes when I landed a job as a trainee reporter on the Campbeltown Courier, landing an interview with Jack Bruce of the rock band Cream. To my joy, that yarn over a pint was published by a special favourite of mine in the last century, The New Musical Express. Hello Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray.

In the line of duty (such expenses-paid, junket hardship!) I swapped jokes with Prime Ministers, got to meet favourite rock stars, pretended not to notice the stale breath of an IRA terrorist in an up-close interview in a doorway, was banished from the Royal Yacht Britannia for insolence in a colour article published on the front page of the Adelaide Advertiser.

That’s enough humble bragging from me. And don’t even ask about hobbies. (Whisper: I am a Virgo) Though you mayone day hear in the media of one of my three grandchildren, Kai, Imani and Sierra.