Good morning from Caffe Nero in Station Square, Cambridge. 

One day, on the outside wall, I hope to see a blue heritage plaque which reads ‘Charles N Palmer wrote The Portals Trilogy here. ’

I went to nursery, primary, secondary school and university in Edinburgh. Everywhere, there are echoes of literary accomplishments. 

By far the largest memorial in Edinburgh is the Scott Monument in Princes Street, commemorating the life and works of Sir Walter Scott.

‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.’ Eloquent and as true today as it was then. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where one of his lecturers became the inspiration for the Sherlock Holmes stories.

‘When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’

I went to school at the Edinburgh Academy. Robert Louis Stevenson, author of ‘Kidnapped’ and ‘Treasure Island’ is a former pupil.

I read his poem ‘Requiem’ at my mother’s funeral, changing the ‘he’ to ‘she’

Under the wide and starry sky,

 Dig the grave and let me lie.

 Glad did I live and gladly die,

 And I laid me down with a will

This be the verse you grave for me:

 Here he lies where he longed to be;

 Home is the sailor, home from sea,

 And the hunter home from the hill.

Edinburgh is a small city. The culture is very close to the people. The literary tradition is energising for me as a writer. These authors walked the same streets, saw the same sights, and experienced the same rain and snow as I did. If they can ’make it,’ I can ‘make it’ too. The gulf is not so great after all.