The Isle of Skye holds a special place in the heart of Blairgowrie-based novelist and children’s author Pauline Tait.
She’s been holidaying there for years with her family, forming a love and a bond with both the island and its people.
She was also delighted to discover recently that she has genealogical links on the island dating back generations.
New novel is set on Skye
Now, her new novel Abigail Returns – the first of a new six-part romantic suspense series which was published on May 30 – is set there.
Both the landscape and the islanders have inspired The Maren Bay series.
A novel about new beginnings and second chances, Pauline’s passion for the island sees protagonist, Abigail, battling the conflicts of the present with secrets from the past.
“I love the island,” said Pauline, 55, in an interview with The Courier.
“We’ve been going for over 20 years since our children were very young.
“It’s an island we absolutely love. We go up there most years.
“I find Perthshire really inspiring. I find it really easy to write there. Skye is the very same.
“There’s something about being by the water.
“But I’ve actually just discovered that I’ve got more of a connection to the island than I’d realised.
“We did the Ancestry DNA thing and it’s pinned me down to Skye.
“It turns out that two generations back on a side of the family that I don’t know much about, they all were born and lived and died on the island, going as far back as I can find.
“So there’s more about the island than I realised.
“Obviously it was meant to be!
“Driving over the Skye Bridge feels like a home from home. The people are lovely as well.
“Which is why the antagonists in the novel are the incomers. The baddies. The locals are the good ones!”
What led Pauline Tait into writing?
Having her first book published in 2016, Pauline writes romantic suspense and children’s picture books, as previously featured in The Courier.
But while she has always “secretly” enjoyed writing, she started off in a very different career.
Brought up in Blairgowrie, she moved to Perth when she was 21, married, and lived between Perth and Blairgowrie for many years.
She worked as a pharmaceutical technician for 22 years.
However, as the pharmaceutical industry became more about “taking things off the shelf”, she decided she wanted to do something more fulfilling.
“When I first trained to be a pharmacy technician we made up a lot of potions,” she said.
“But as the world moved on, everything became pre-packaged.
“There was no job satisfaction left at all.
“At that time my kids were getting a little bit older and I wanted to make a difference.
“I used to like going in and helping – volunteering with kids when my kids were at primary school.
“So I retrained and worked in primary literacy support.”
Finding a ‘niche’ in education
Pauline worked at the Royal School of Dunkeld.
She’d make and implement individual learning plans for children who needed extra-curricular support.
Sometimes it was youngsters where English wasn’t their first language.
For others it was about “getting them up to speed” with the year they were in.
She “loved that job”. She found it very satisfying. She made it her niche.
But when her children’s books started to take-off, she decided to leave.
She’d come up with the idea for her first children’s book The Fairy in the Kettle when she was in her 20s.
She used to make up stories for her own children when they were very young.
But by this time in her mid-40s, working in literacy support and having regular contact with young primary age children gave her the courage to “pull the old manuscript out of the cupboard and give it a go”.
Concentrating on writing books
“It was obvious it was going to be really hard to do both – write and work in the school – if I wanted to dedicate my time to my writing,” she said.
“My first book that came out was a children’s book.
“Waterstones were really really good, as they have been with all my books.
“I was surprised at the start of how embracing of the story they were.
“I was getting invited along to a lot of events throughout the country.
“I think having worked with children that went in my favour.
“I could hold the children’ attention.
“I could quietly deal with any tricky situations and just keep the events going because I was used to working with children.
“But I was starting to say ‘no’ to things.
“I was having to turn things down. I thought – mid-40s – If I’m going to give this a go, I’ll need to give up the school. So I did.”
Passion for printed books and libraries
Pauline has since written three children’s books and two adult books.
She still enjoys getting back into schools for book events.
She’ll go in, read her story and do a creative writing lesson around it.
She also supports charitable events in libraries.
Saving libraries from the budget cut axe is something she feels passionately about.
She’s also a great believer in the tactility of printed books.
While she has and continues to publish on Kindle, she believes it’s much better for children in particular to hold and feel a physical copy.
*Abigail Returns by Pauline Tait is out now, Fountainbridge Publishing, £8.99, www.paulinetait.com
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