Scotch Mist

This brilliant first novel, brimming with humour and charm, is a chronicle of Englishman David Dunlop's mostly incompetent attempts to rise to even the most basic challenges of living in the remote Scottish Highlands. Interspersed with wry cameos from his past life as an aspiring junior executive in southern England, his absurd predicaments not only portray the vast cultural contrast between the English suburbanite and the West Coast Gael, but also highlight his own personal inadequacies. The frustrations of the unsatisfactory marriage, career and materialistic existence he left behind are replaced by equally frustrating new perversities of climate, inanimate objects and West Coast mores. You'll shed a tear from both laughter and pathos as the plot slides from wry humour to a climax of pure farce. 

Author biography

Derek Taylor retired to the North West Highlands of Scotland in 1994 with the firm intention of devoting himself to the undemanding pursuits of sailing, golfing and fishing. Scotch Mist, his first novel, simply 'emerged' during a rather wet six week spell -- when sitting in the comfort of a centrally-heated study seemed preferable to donning the waterproofs for a visit to the boat. Married to a writer, and with two teenage sons and a spaniel, Derek holds a PhD in sociology. His fascination with social norms (the subject of his doctoral thesis) and the real-world clash of normative systems stimulated this fictionalised account of life's travails in the Highlands for an inadequate Englishman.

Writing Scotch Mist

Derek's novel simply 'emerged' during a rather wet six week spell - when sitting in the comfort of a centrally-heated study seemed preferable to donning the waterproofs for a visit to the boat. Derek holds a PhD in sociology, and his fascination with social norms (the subject of his doctoral thesis) and the real-world clash of normative systems stimulated this fictionalised account of life's travails in the Highlands for an inadequate Englishman.

In 2001 it was entered for the International E_Book Award Foundation, awarded at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

ISBN: 1-84045-053-3