Allan Ramsay: Makar of Edinburgh launching on the 2nd of May
Sian Mackay
After several years living in Egypt and the USA, I returned to Scotland and worked as a freelance journalist for publications included The [Glasgow] Herald, Scotsman and TLSS.
In the 1980s, I founded Moubray House Press in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile to publish works of Scottish interest, among them the bestselling picture book The Forth Bridge (1990). Birlinn Publishing produced a new edition of the book in 2021.
In the 1990s, I worked from Spain, contributing to English language publications, founding Sancho Press, and authoring several books for British publishers. This period also marked my transition from non-fiction to fiction with the publication of the novel Raphael’s Wings and several short stories. I returned to Scotland in 2004 and researched and wrote the fictive biography Robert Louis Stevenson at Skerryvore (Sancho Press, 2013). Thistle Publishing acquired the rights a year later.
In Spain, I had been offered a file of abandoned documents which – after eight years of travel and research – led to the publication of the biography Von Ripper’s Odyssey.
Initially published by Thistle Publishing, London (2016), the rights reverted to Sancho Press the following year.
Anticipating the 300th anniversary of the poet Allan Ramsay’s masterwork, The Gentle Shepherd (1725), I have written the first biography of the man who was the father of the renowned painter, also Allan Ramsay.
Allan Ramsay: Makar of Edinburgh is published by Sancho Press (2024).
