
PHOTO:
PETER SANDGROUND
Terry
Houston describes himself as an Ulster Scot.
Born in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, before moving to Ayrshire, he spent his
early childhood in the Orkney islands, a windswept archipelago beyond
the uttermost Northern tip of mainland Scotland. It was there he developed
a lasting love affair with literature.
He says: "I was brought up with two brothers in a rambling, draughty
manse where you couldn't rightly sit down without moving a book or two;
meals were served by a mother who spent her time in the flagstone kitchen
over a cast-iron range stirring pots and pans, a spoon in one hand and
a book in the other. It was that sort of nose in a book household, and
the Old Man was just as bad.
"The manse library was a magical place. To childish eyes it was
floor to ceiling books, a higgledy, piggledy lucky dip where one hand
lighted upon a Charles Dickens classic, the other on an Irish poet or
a ripping adventure yarn from John Buchan. No-one ever told us children
what to read or guided our tastes, so we just intermittently browsed
our way through everything. We'd caught the bug, of course. That thrill
of reading books has never left me. I still can't wait to turn the page
to see what happens next."
Houston has spent most of his adult life in Glasgow working for national
daily newspapers and knows intimately the eccentric world of popular
journalism. He was a staffer for the Scottish Daily Express, the Daily
Record and the Glasgow Evening Times for the best part of thirty years
in capacities ranging from staff reporter, feature writer, news editor
and assistant editor to senior columnist and leader writer.
He now lives in Paisley with his dog, Bonnie.
Relatively new to the Internet, he says: "I'm still a bit bamboozled
by it, but I believe in the power of the Word and the Web is probably
the most important bulwark of freedom of speech ever invented, because
no Government can ever really control it. Unfortunately I'm a horse
and buggy man in a technological age and it's hard to teach an old dog
new tricks. Dammit, I can't even teach my new dog new tricks!"
Houston
is author or co-author of three non-fiction books The Gift, Great
Scots in Business and Great Scots: the Next Generation which
achieved national newspaper serialisation in Scotland and/or England.
But mainstream fiction is his first love. His political thriller, The
Wounded Stone (Argyll Publishing, Scotland) topped the Scottish
book charts. He is currently working on a techno-thriller set in the
USA.
Contact
Terry: terryhouston@bewrite.net