It was 4th year music class in Glasgow High School. The teacher was struggling to enthuse us as we ‘sang’ We are the Yeomen, the Yeomen of England. “Come on boys, imagine you are English Yeomen going into battle. Feel it!” We looked at each other. Into battle against whom? The Scots?

Until this point, I had not known what I wanted to do with my life. After it I decided that I would do something about the virtual absence of Scottish Music from our curriculum -  including pipes and fiddle music – and do my best to get rid of the ‘Scottish cringe’ which suggested that all things north of the border were somehow second-rate. 

I became a music teacher and joined a, then, small insignificant political party called the SNP. Years later, here I am, having taught in Lochaber, Wick, Buckie and Speyside High Schools; having stood unsuccessfully for the SNP at three General Elections; having adjudicated at National Mods, written a few tunes, and toured Bavaria, Ireland and Texas with a seriously good teenage fiddle group called the Strathspey Fiddlers. 

If asked about any genuine achievements, I would cite a rock climb in Torridon named after me and conducting a performance of Verdi’s Requiem with a choir of 140 and professional orchestra of 60 in Buckie’s Fishermen’s Hall when, close to the end, I did an almighty rallentando which no other conductor has thought of doing. 

Biggest 'out there' decision in life? A joint meeting of the SNP Parliamentary Group and its National Executive at which we decided to bring down the then Labour government. Biggest 'out there' regret in life? See above. It opened-up the way for 13 years of Margaret Thatcher. 

I have two sons from my first marriage – one a scientist in the USA, the other Deputy Director of the Scottish Poetry Library – and a daughter, whose French mum died of cancer shortly after she was born and is a Social Worker in Renfrewshire.

Morag and I knew each other as teenagers in Newtonmore. We had not seen each other for fifty years till we met up at the Clan MacPherson Museum, she as Curator, me as aspiring joint author of ‘The Spey Source to Sea’. We married in St Bride’s Church and had a short but respectable time together afterwards.

Happiest decision in life? See above.