Neither Here Nor There Written by CG Docherty Published by Levenford Publishing Price: £12.99 WHEN studying local history and creating family trees has never been so popular, it is often said ‘you have to know where you came from in order to know where you are going.’ Some questions people ask regularly here in Scotland: “Who do you think you are?” Are you somebody? “Who were your parents?” “Where did they work?” What is really surprising is that so many people haven’t a clue

WHEN we think of a kilted soldier, we almost definitely think of someone very different from Ian MacKenzie Kennedy. He may have had—at times—a feather in his bunnet and a kilt upon his knee, but MacKenzie Kennedy was no representation of the clichéd Scottish martial spirit. He was, from early 1918, a soldier in the Irish Republican Army.

I AWAITED the publication of this book with great anticipation as my mother’s people hail from the mountainous region of Sliabh Beagh, near where the three counties of Monaghan, Fermanagh and Tyrone meet.

WHEN Glaswegian Paul O’Donaghue ends up in lockdown after travelling to a small village on the north coast of Donegal for his mother’s funeral, he’s not unduly worried.

IT'S NOT often I’d say someone feels like a long lost soul sister before actually meeting them, but that’s exactly how I felt when I read From Grief to Gratitude, a beautifully honest and heartfelt memoir written by Catriona Whyte, documenting her life journey and experiences of grief and loss and her subsequent road to healing.