A Fife crime writer who cheated death in Storm Gertrude now has cause to celebrate.
Author and farmer James Oswald had a narrow escape as the storm brought down a barn on top of his caravan.
James pens his best-selling books from a static caravan under a Dutch barn at his 350-acre farm at Newburgh.
During a harrowing night at the hands of Gertrude, gales of 105mph ripped the barn roof off its supports and it buckled on to the caravan, with James and partner Barbara being woken by the noise.
Had it collapsed at the other end, the caravan where they were sleeping would have been crushed.
Recounting that night, James said: “During one of the bigger storms the year before, the barn creaked quite a bit but nothing like this.
“The sound was terrible and I could barely sleep.
“The wind would die a bit and then you would hear it rising in the distance before exploding against the barn.
“All of a sudden, there was a massive bang and everything went black.
“Basically, the force of the storm snapped the roof off.
“Looking at it now, if the roof had collapsed at the other side we could have died because the whole thing would have been straight down on the caravan.”
Relieved at the escape, the pair have decamped into a section of a new home they are having built on the farm, with James getting set to tour his new book around Scotland.
The new book has surpassed the half million sales mark and secured an Edinburgh Book Festival slot.
News of his maiden festival appearance has buoyed the author of the acclaimed Inspector McLean series.
It is almost four years to the day that James put his first book, Natural Causes, online for free as the “last throw of the dice” for his writing career.
Instead of selling the expected 1,000 books, he sold 350,000 and sparked a five-way battle for his services.
“It’s been an amazing journey but I am lucky to have the farm as well. I can still walk down the street and not be recognised, which is nice,” he said.
“It’s hard to get big-headed when you’re pulling out lambs. It certainly keeps you grounded.”
The author launches The Damage Done at Waterstones in Dundee at 6.30pm on Thursday.
He will be at Topping Book Seller in St Andrews at 8pm on Friday, Kirkcaldy Waterstones on March 10 and Dunfermline’s Bruery on March 18.