‘Dementia Awareness’ & ‘Seaweed In My Hair’ by Miller Caldwell
Blurb
Dementia Adventure
Retired Postman Ronnie Jackson suffers from Dementia. He retains a very early hour of rising and on several occasions sees something suspicious at the Blackwaterfoot slipway. He is not believed. Can Ronnie make sense of what has happened to him and can he settle happily after his traumatic experiences?
Seaweed In My Hair
Central London gets Kate and Greg Bailey down. The skills of a hair stylist and a health club manager seem transferable to the Scottish Isle of Arran. But the move turns out to be a disaster for them both. As their relationship tears apart, Kate must survive traumatic events. Can she turn her world around on her own? Can she possibly find contentment in her life as the wild sea churns over and the fresh sea breezes blow in her direction?
About the author
Miller H Caldwell was born in 1950 growing up in the manse at Kirriemuir,in the north east of Scotland. He finished schooling in Glasgow determined to lead a humanitarian life. He was appointed by the Church of Scotland to work in Ghana. He was the Secretary to the Tema Council of Churches and the Tema Community Project. He received Charlie, an African monkey, as a gift for providing employment for a large group of agriculturalists. He also owned an African Grey parrot called Kofi. (qv The Parrot’s Tale) He met his wife in Ghana. Returning to the UK in 1978 he enrolled at London University for a post graduate degree in African Studies. He worked at St Modan’s High School, Stirling before becoming a reporter to the children’s panels. Promotion led him from Kilmarnock to Ayr and finally to be the Regional then first Authority Reporter for Dumfries & Galloway. In 2002 in London he received the inter-agency Community Care Award. In 2003 he retired and became an author. In 2006 he was appointed Camp Manager at Mundihar in the NW Frontier of Pakistan following the south Asian earthquake. He was presented with the International Award for services to earthquake victims at a ceremony in Islamabad. He has been the President of the Dumfries Burns Club three times and Chair of the Scottish Association for the Study of Offending. He is married to Jocelyn and has two daughters, Fiona and Laura. His other loves are his trombone, tenor sax and clarinet. He is currently the President of the Dumfries Burns Club in its 200th year. Miller is a direct descendant of the Bard.
Review
These books form books 2 & 3 in the author’s Arran trilogy, which has also been optioned by Netflix. I really enjoyed reading the two books. However, I was very frustrated by Rory’s actions in ‘Dementia Awareness’. There is no way he would have fobbed Ronnie off when suspected drugs drops were reported. You could have made it where he observed one night and nothing happened and the rest of the story kicked in. I did enjoy the exploration of the issue of dementia and prisoners being highlighted as this is an issue that probably needs looked into. I really felt a lot of empathy for Ronnie.
‘Seaweed’ was great and I wish I had benefactors like Kate - please someone buy me a house in Arran, particularly in Lamlash! I wish we had a bit more time to further explore the relationships that Kate makes on Arran but then in the novella format that is quite hard to achieve. I think I would have preferred a long story.
It's clear that the author loves Arran though and especially the west coast of it and that shines through in his writing. I like that we were seeing the isle through different viewpoints this time round which allowed the author to mix it up a bit!
Let me know if you read these ones.
