Moira McCrossan

Do you read the cornflake box or the sauce bottle on the table? Do you read the small print on the leaflets in the waiting room? Are you oblivious to your surroundings when you’re lost in a book? If so, then, like me, you are a compulsive reader. I love reading and I will read anything and everything. My degree is in literature and the arts, including specialist courses on the novel, drama and poetry and I have taught literature and writing to children and to adults. I have produced and directed many dramatic productions with children. The last was Roald Dahl’s hilarious version of Snowwhite and I am now planning an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Scottish play.

I have written, mainly on the topics of education and travel, for books, magazines, newspapers and specialist publications. I have contributed to the Times Educational Supplement on reading. With my husband Hugh Taylor, who writes about Middle East Travel on Suite 101, I’ve written guides to Scotland, Turkey, Jordan, Cancun and the Yucatan and worked for most of the top names in guidebook publishing including Dorling Kindersley, AA and AAA Publishing, Insight, New Holland, Thomas Cook and Jarrold.

I was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland in 1993 and a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland in 2005.

I live in an old bakery in a beautiful conservation area in south west Scotland. The village has become a magnet for artists and writers and six other writers live within five minutes walk.

These pages will be a source of information and interest for anyone, who loves reading. It will have news of the latest publications and awards in Brtish fiction, with links to other sites of similar interest. It will have reviews, opinions and articles on contemporary fiction as well as articles about the history of the novel. There will be information about classics of their genre like Dickens, Austen, Wells, Tolkien or Agatha Christie, particularly tied in with major new film or television productions.

And I want it to generate discussion and debate, so if you have an opinion, share it. Check out the discussions or contact me.