Linda Gask

I first came to Orkney at the age of 18 and settled permanently in 2020, having lived here for several years part-time. I am half Scottish by birth, was brought up in England but educated at the University of Edinburgh. I write literary non-fiction, am an active member of Stromness Writer’s Group in Orkney and have extensive experience of public speaking both in my second career as a writer giving talks about my memoir writing, and as an academic before that. I am interested in speaking to adult audiences, and also in developing/delivering workshops for memoir and life-story writing.

I spent my life working as a psychiatrist and researcher, but have written two memoirs in the last couple of decades:

• The Other Side of Silence- A psychiatrist’s memoir of depression which was published in 2015 by Summersdale - concerned with my own life experiences of mental health problems at the same time as treating others in the NHS.

• Finding True North: The healing power of place published in 2021 by Sandstone Press – concerned with moving to Orkney and trying to recover from depression.

I have also been published in The Guardian and maintain a blog about mental health.

(Photo credit: John Manton)