The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Natural talent
After more than 20 years, Jim Crumley is penning his final column for The Courier. Jack McKeown catches up with the nature writer and talks about his past and present, as well as his future plans
Jim Crumley looks back on 20 years of writing a column for The Courier. HIs future looks exciting too.
Jim Crumley has a copy of The Courier tucked under his arm when we meet for coffee and a scone in St Andrews.
It’s fitting: he worked for the paper in his earliest days as a journalist and has written a weekly column for more than 20 years.
He’s now decided to give up his presence in the paper and Tuesday will see his final column.
Jim grew up in Lochee – his grandfather was on Dundee FC’s 1910 Scottish Cup-winning squad – and his fondness for that area crops up time and again in his columns.
He left school aged 16 and went to work for DC Thomson, starting as a trainee reporter on The Courier. Over five years with the company he worked as a news reporter, features writer, sports writer, and as a sub-editor on the People’s Journal.
He left to work for The Daily Express and took redundancy when it shut down its Scottish base in 1974. Then, at the age of around 27, he became the youngest-ever editor in the Stirling Observer’s long history.
He was chief sub-editor at The Herald and worked on The Evening News before quitting to write books full time.
“That was in 1988,” he remembers. “I quit my job the day after the publication of my first book. It wasn’t a popular decision but I’ve never once regretted it.”
Since then Jim’s written close to 40 books. One of his best received, The Road and the Miles, concerns Dundee and brought him back to the city. “I met Ian Lamb, who started at The Courier around the same time as me and was then assistant editor,” Jim continues. “He asked if I wanted to write a weekly column.”
Jim’s first column appeared on October 21 1997 and concerned his very distant family link with Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie.
While he’s best known as a nature writer, Jim has returned to several other themes during his tenure at The Courier. Politics – he’s a full-hearted independence supporter – architecture and the city of Dundee are all subjects he’s dwelt on time and again.
“I think only once in 20 years has The Courier pulled a column of mine, and that was for a piece I wrote following the Queen Mother’s death,” he continues. “One of the many things I’m grateful to The Courier for is the freedom I’ve had to write what I want. Rightly or wrongly, The Courier is seen as a unionist paper and I think having a voice that supports independence has been good for the paper.”
Of course, there are many who disagree with Jim’s every viewpoint and critiques of his columns frequently grace the Letters page. “I don’t think the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association has ever agreed with me about anything,” he smiles. “It’s a truism that the people who agree with you write to you and the people who disagree write to the editor.”
Jim has just turned 71 but stresses he is certainly not retiring. “I’ve been busier than I’m comfortable with on book projects over the last few years,” he explains. “I never want to get to the stage where I’m just going through the motions. I’ve got too much respect for The Courier and its readers ever to do that.
“I’m in the midst of two series of books – my quartet on the seasons and Encounters in the Wild. I’ve written more than 1,000 columns and it feels like the right time to stop.”
I quit my job the day after the publication of my first book. It wasn’t a popular decision but I’ve never once regretted it