Honest Truth

We get so much wet weather in Scotland that we’ve coined countless phrases to describe our drookit days. It feels like it’s always spitting, stoating or peltin’ doon. Now novelist Ron Butlin has written a book on the subject. He tells Tracey Bryce the Honest Truth about rain Why did you decide to write about rain?

Hearing that Eskimos have more than 40 words for snow, I was certain that we Scots could come up with an even better word count for rain. As it turns out, we can. Much, much better. I had such fun writing this book!

Just how much rain do we get in Scotland every year?

It varies. Whereas the west enjoys a good drenching of about 3,000mm per year, the east coast, though usually a tad colder, gets by on a mere 800mm.

Is it the wettest place in the world?

Not by miles. However, as we know from the frequency of those unco dreich days, our country is certainly one of the cloudiest. Mawsynram in India holds the world record for highest average annual rainfall: 11,871mm.

How many different words did you come across?

The publisher asked for 50. After I reached 70, I stopped counting or I knew the book would never get finished!

How and where did you find them?

I was brought up in Hightae (1,112mm of rain in a typical year), near Dumfries. We kids all spoke Scots and the weather kept our rain vocabulary pretty