Writing, albeit not always in an especially creative mode and definitely not involving fiction, was a part of my job when I worked for Shetland Islands Council.  I wrote innumerable reports and press releases in that role, but I was also involved in preparing interpretive material for use at historic sites and in many leaflets aimed at visitors to Shetland.  In the mid-1990s, away from work, I contributed chapters on Orkney, Shetland and the Highlands to editions of the Rough Guide: Scotland and the Rough Guide: Britain.  To my surprise, some of that prose survives in current editions.

In around 2008, I planned and wrote a website, then running to around 100 pages, the purpose of which was to promote Shetland.  After retirement, I continued to contribute to it and for many years produced around three articles and a newsletter each month.  

I do less for that site now, because I need to concentrate on co-authoring what my colleague and I hope will be a comprehensive history of Shetland’s response to oil.  It’s a work in progress and I think we’re probably only about a third of the way there.

Over the years, I’ve undertaken many other copywritng, copy editing and proofreading tasks for magazines and annual publications.