My post-retirement career as a children’s author has been occasionally frustrating but has brought so many joyful moments. As a side-benefit, I know far more about unicorns, early flight, Titanic, the Paisley pattern and axolotls than I’d ever have known if I hadn’t become a children’s author.

As one of Dad’s executors, I’ve spent this year dealing with legal stuff, but lots of cheerier things have been happening too and I’ve really enjoyed all the opportunities to do creative writing projects for different age groups and in new genres.

The end of last year was busy, with lots of Book Week Scotland school visits and an exciting trip down to London to do two events for the St Andrew’s Book Festival with writer pals Barbara Henderson and Victoria Williamson.

In January I was thrilled when Scottish Book Trust named Linnet and the Periwinkle Flyer as their Junior Book of the Month. It was fabulous too to sign my books in Waterstones Piccadilly.

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Late last year, I pitched some ideas to Badger Learning, who I have worked with before and they asked me to write a non-fiction school reading book about axolotls, which was enormous fun. Axolotls have now been added to my very short list of possible Mastermind specialist subjects (the ony other subject on the list is Titanic) and my first non-fiction book comes out in September!

Thanks to the lovely producers, I was also given the opportunity to write a new story for BBC Scotland’s fantastic Time for A Story series. The story, Ruby’s Backpack, was recorded in January and is now available on their website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0n3p578

I’ve completed four seasonal stories, set in Eglinton Park near Irvine,  for a lovely nature-inspired project with North Ayrshire Council. Shug’s Wood Story Trail is launching in September and I am so looking forward to working with local schools and to seeing the finished trail. The artwork created so far by two local artists is gorgeous and it is incredible to see my story characters brought to life.

One of my favourite-ever author events happened in March, thanks to Tidelines Book Festival and Scottish Book Trust.It took place in Vanilla Joe’s Ice Cream Factory in Irvine and the children attended all designed their own ice cream. The winning ice cream flavour was made by Vanilla Joe’s.

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This year, I also been lucky to attend two Titanic exhibitions, Aberdeen in April and Birmingham in May.  Visits to the London exhibition on 8th to 9th August and the Edinburgh one on the 12th and 13th of December are already arranged! It is such a pleasure to get the chance to speak to people whose eyes don’t glaze over when I start talking about my favourite Titanic facts.

In conclusion, this job is the best in the world and I feel incredibly lucky.

This was the final section of my last blog at the end of May:

To be honest, I think the answer to the question of “when will I get this book written?”  is the same as when I worked full-time as a primary teacher. The summer holidays will soon be here. School events will stop and I will get my head down and have a first draft written by the end of August. It WILL happen. 

Unfortunately, as Burns said in his famous poem,

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy.

Which is pretty much what has happened. My first draft hasn’t been touched this summer. When the holidays arrived my lovely dad, who hadn’t been in good health for months, began to deteriorate rapidly.  A scan showed that his colon cancer had returned. He died peacefully on the 24th of July.

My father was a special person, a genuinely lovely man. One of his greatest qualities was his ability to believe the best of people. He was a true gentleman; kindness personified and generous to a fault, who gave without expectation of praise or reward.

Dad had a firm moral compass, but he was also hugely compassionate. Whenever his kids or grandkids made mistakes or bad choices, he was always ready to forgive and keen to help us out of whatever pickle we were in.

A short poem by Robert Louis Stevenson sums up Bobby Gibson’s life.

That man is a success
who has lived well,
laughed often and loved much;
who has gained the respect of men and women
and the love of children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who leaves the world better than he found it,
who looked for the best in others,
and gave the best he had.

My dad’s life was an unqualified success.

He was the best of men, the salt of the earth. He laughed often and loved much. He gave the best he had.

He has left the world better than he found it, and I will love and miss him forever.

Robert Gibson March 30th 1929-24th July 2025