Authors

I was born and bred in Edinburgh, and to me it’s the most beautiful city in the world. I’ve been living in Orkney for nine years now, but whenever I come back to Edinburgh it’s like coming home. It feels like I’ve put my slippers on when the train pulls into Waverley and I see the castle: the same castle I saw from my bedroom window in Leith when I was wee.


The great thing about Edinburgh is its contrasts: there are beautiful old buildings right next to fantastic new ones; you can stand on the North Bridge with the traffic buzzing behind you and look out at the calm blue of the North Sea. However, some contrasts are not so good. Edinburgh is a very wealthy city and yet many people who live there struggle to make ends meet, so it’s great to see a project committed to changing that.


I don’t imagine children are very interested in literary awards so I won’t tell you that I won the Belmont Prize for children’s poetry and the Hi-Arts short story competition. Neither will I mention being shortlisted for the Scotsman/Orange Prize and the Saltire First Book of the Year Award.


An extract from The Storyteller By Alison Flett

Hey! Listen tae this. I’m gonnae tell you a secret, something that naebody else kens. I dinnae ken why but I feel like I can trust you. It feels like you might be someone a
bit like me, someone whae likes stories, someone whae kens that words can be magic. So here it is; ma secret. I’m gonnae write it sidieways in case somebody else is reading this ower your shoulder. I’m no wanting just anybody tae see it:

Read the full story in Our City, available from Polygon in November 2008.