After 33 years as a teacher of Modern Languages and the last 10 as a Depute Head Teacher, I was offered and accepted early retirement from Dundee City Council Education Department in June 2010. Encouraged by my wife Mary, I started to do what people had been telling me to do for years; write a book!

I spent several months writing a memoir of my childhood in Dundee and was lucky enough to have a brother (Joe) capable of editing my manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and making it suitable for public consumption. I then spent a further two years finding and acquiring permission to use a total of 67 photos from the late 50s and early 60s to enhance the visual impact of the book.

When my wife and I set off with a caravan on tow to tour Europe in September of 2012, we eventually found ourselves in Sorrento where we encountered the snail which was to become the hero of extra bonus posts on my blog. The reaction of those who were following the daily blog prompted me to turn these posts into a book and "Socrates the Sprinting Snail of Sorrento" was self-published in December 2013. The second children's book for adults too "Bonjour Socrates!" was written and published in December 2017 and is available only from this website. 

The lessons learned on this initial publishing adventure persuaded me to finish my memoir and publish it myself under the title "Wee Georgie" in September 2014. This first memoir was very successful and sold out all 500 copies within a year . Meanwhile I had been working away on the follow-up about my years at secondary school, Lawside Academy in Dundee. This was published at the end of November 2015 under the title "Georgie". Both the memoirs sold well at Waterstones bookstore in Dundee. At one point in February 2016 both the memoirs were No.1 and No.2 in the Scottish memoirs listings of Waterstones. The third memoir "George: The University Years" joined them on the shelves of three bookshops in Dundee and Broughty Ferry. My new book "Balgay Park" launched on Saturday 2 December 2023 and sold 60 copies in 2 hours.

During my time in Spain, I have family help from cousin Renée and her husband Stef (pictured above opposite with myself and wife Mary) handling the distribution of my books.