Ian Crofton

Author of #WalkingTheBorder, A Dictionary of #ScottishPhraseAndFable, and #FringedWithMudAndPearls: An English Island Odyssey, etc.

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

@KenCrocket July 1974 we were turned back by a gamekeeper. The Bothy’s being used, the shooting’s started. Turn back. Now.

[Jan Patience @JanPatience]

My family pressie from @DerekBateman2
#CooncilTelly 📺 😃
@IanCrofton

[Simon Atkinson @SimonMAtkinson]

BRIEFING: For more on Piel Island see this 1961 Pathe News coverage https://t.co/DyZgYex2Em plus also chapters in @karenlloydwrite’s Morecambe Bay Tour and @IanCrofton’s book on the islands of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[Neil Matthews @DrNeilMatthews]

A pointed reminder by @IanCrofton that nothing is forever, especially not low-lying English islands.

[Gerry Hassan @GerryHassan]

'A Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable' new edition is a superb guide which sheds a light on what it means to be Scottish. "Low-flying Jimmies' to "lowest of the fuckin low" to "ye cannae shove yer grannie aff a bus." Brilliantly compiled by @IanCrofton pub by @BirlinnBooks

[Alan McGinley @AlanMcginley6]

@GerryHassan @IanCrofton @BirlinnBooks Fabulous book, which I’ve given to friends and colleagues on a fair few occasions.

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

I just backed The Bird Who Swallowed the Moon: Illustrated Children's Book on @kickstarter https://t.co/K239lILzyb

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

Good write-up in The Scotsman today of the new edition of my Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable, out now from @BirlinnBooks. Go to https://t.co/TISXM2iUiC

[birlinnbooks @BirlinnBooks]

'Scotland’s new collection of best put-downs, characters and curious sayings released' - read the article in @scotsman_arts about the publication of A Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable by @IanCrofton:
https://t.co/9NKh8QRSIW

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

“At Portland Bill you are not far above the sea. Light was breaking through the low cloud along the southwestern horizon, and waves were racing into the rocks, the wind blowing tails of spray back from their crests.” #FringedWithMudAndPearls @BirlinnBooks

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

Join @Malala and Afghan women's rights advocates @ZarqaYaftali & @ShaharzadAkbar's urgent call to world leaders to get Afghan girls back in school #LetAfghanGirlsLearn https://t.co/vrNDChDj93

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

“Further north, as the sound between Tresco and Bryher opened out into the Atlantic, the ocean swell was breaking over the rocks of Shipman Head. I could hear it from half a mile away through the still air.” #FringedWithMudAndPearls: An English Island Odyssey @BirlinnBooks

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

Farmers’ market on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne: “It really annoys us that the chap next door tells people he grows his strawberries here. What he actually does is buy them from the supermarket and bring them here in his van.” #FringedWithMudAndPearls @BirlinnBooks

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

Hi @BorisJohnson the gas price crisis has shown us how vulnerable we are to our reliance on fossil fuels. The solution to this and the climate crisis are the same - sustainable renewable energy. Stop Cambo and focus on renewable energy #BorisStopCambo

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

En route to the Isles of Furness “As the light faded across the falling water, I saw two locomotives pulling a pair of flat-bed trucks across the viaduct. I wondered whether the train, perhaps from Sellafield, was loaded with nuclear waste.” #FringedWithMudAndPearls @BirlinnBooks

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

“It was a sunny Saturday on Mersea Island, and everybody was heading for the beach.” From #FringedWithMudAndPearls: An English Island Odyssey, out now from @BirlinnBooks. View a short video about the book here https://t.co/rhTTSxdGWG

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

“At one time, I would have looked forward to an ascent of the Devil’s Slide as an undemanding day out at the seaside, a dance up easy-angled, sun-kissed granite. But two and a half years before my visit to Lundy I had had my fall …” #FringedWithMudAndPearls @BirlinnBooks

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

At Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs: “We made our way round the shiny new financial district, walking amongst imposing bank headquarters, frothing fountains, chunky pieces of newly commissioned sculpture ...” From #FringedWithMudAndPearls: An English Island Odyssey @BirlinnBooks

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

On Wallasea Island: “... the Creeksea Ferry Inn, whose landlady had survived the night of the great North Sea flood of 1953 by hanging on to the top of a door for nearly seven hours, while the water washed around her neck.” #FringedWithMudAndPearls @BirlinnBooks

[Ian Crofton @IanCrofton]

On the Isle of Sheppey: “Further on stood a massive industrial shed, walled in corrugated iron, painted in various shades of blue, smeared with rust. This was part of the Sheerness steel rolling mills, which closed in 2012 …” #FringedWithMudAndPearls @BirlinnBooks