Roddy Martine

Born: 1946 in Kuching, Borneo
First Book: The Swinging Sporran (Wolfe Publishing, 1972)
Awards: Scorpion on the Ceiling (Librario Publishing, 2005) was nominated for the Saltire Award 2005

Born of Scottish parentage in Borneo, Roddy Martine was educated in England and Scotland. He now lives in Edinburgh and is the author of over twenty books covering subjects ranging from Scottish clan tartans and the supernatural to the history of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

For nine years Roddy edited Scottish Field magazine, and has also edited several life-style magazines. For his contributions towards the promotion of the Scotch whisky industry he was, in 1996, created a Keeper of the Quaich. In 2006, he was made a Master of the Quaich. He currently edits The Keeper, the house magazine of the Keepers of the Quaich.

He has also been an Honorary Sponsor of the American Scottish Foundation since 1996, and has been an invited guest at the annual Tartan Day celebrations in New York since 1999, and in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, was Master of Ceremonies at the Icons of Scotland Award Ceremonies held at New York\'s Explorers Club, the Hudson Theatre, the Waldorf Astoria, and Tavern on the Green. In November 2002, he was the Scottish Australian Heritage Council’s guest from Scotland for the ten-day Sydney Scottish Week celebrations in Australia.

Having been a columnist with the Edinburgh Evening News, the Scotsman, the Herald, Scottish Daily Mail, and the Sunday Times (Scotland), he continues to write for several national newspapers, as well as being the contributing editor of Scotland Magazine and a regular broadcaster on radio and television.

In 2006 Birlinn reprinted The Swinging Sporran, which was co-authored by Roddy and Andrew Campbell in 1972. In 2006, the year of the release of blockbuster movie The Da Vinci Code, Birlinn published Roddy’s book The Secrets of Rosslyn, the true story of the chapel, castle and glen of Rosslyn. Roddy is currently working on a family saga relating to the county of East Lothian, scheduled for publication by Birlinn in 2008.