Archie and the North Wind

Angus Peter Campbell

In Archie and the North Wind, Archie has lived on a small island off the Scottish coast his entire life. After decades without a job and without a break from his demanding wife, Archie packs his bag and leaves to find the hole where the North Wind originates, as the old stories claim. He meets many strange and wonderful characters along the way, including the beautiful deaf Jewel, Yukon Joe and Sergio the expert potato-peeler. Some of the most appealing characters, however, hail from his own island – Gobhlachan who ‘sits around the open terminal of the kiln fire trawling that amazing website of myths in his own mind’ and John the Goblin who introduced Archie to tobacco and the ‘Arcticberry’ palmtop!

Angus Peter Campbell was born on South Uist. He moved to Oban to go to secondary school where he developed a love of literature studying under Iain Crichton Smith. As with several of the authors appearing in the Inverness Festival this year, he developed his literary interests studying under the Writer-in-Residence of Edinburgh University at the time, Sorley MacLean.

Angus now lives in Skye, and has previously published a number of works in Gaelic. In 2001, he was awarded the Bardic Crown for Gaelic Poetry, as well as the Creative Scotland Award. His Gaelic novel An oidhche mus do sheol sinn (The Night Before We Sailed) was included in The List 100 Best Scottish Books of All Time. As well as being an author, Campbell has also worked in newspapers, radio and film, with a leading role in the Gaelic language feature film, Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle.

Join Angus to hear him read from his new book and discuss his writing, followed by an audience question and answer session.