I live at the seaside, in Musselburgh, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. I love writing, and have a weekly column in The Scotsman, Scotland’s national newspaper, every Saturday.  I don’t pretend to offer any great insights, just my experience in politics, journalism and life over the last 35 years or so.

I am not a public intellectual, think of me more as a granny with attitude.

Talking of grannies with attitude, I am pictured above with one of my closest friends, Homba Mbkeani, who sadly died in July 2019, two weeks after her 92nd birthday.

She was wise, strong, and had a helluva lot of attitude: she was the soul of Malawi.