Curlews and Cows | Ayr Writers

One of the best aspects of being a member of Ayr Writers is the variety of outside speakers we have in our programme. Writers are by their nature storytellers, and we’ve had some fantastic yarns spun to us in my time as a member.

Some of the most interesting talks have come from (to my mind at least) unusual sources. We’ve had workshops on writing song lyrics and publishing via Mills and Boon, both of which taught me things about writing of which I was previously ignorant.

On 19th October 2022 we were lucky enough to be visited by Patrick Laurie. Patrick’s book ‘Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape’ was published in 2021, a release date which fell victim to Covid lockdown. Nevertheless, the book was a Times bestseller and was shortlisted for several national awards. His work explores nature and the link between people and landscape in Southwest Scotland.

It was my privilege to be on blogging duty for Patrick’s visit. Read my thoughts on a fascinating discussion here.

*Thanks for reading, folks. My recent short stories include ‘Cooks Matches, Lentils, and Sofa Stuffing‘ and ‘Snatched‘.

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Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0

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