Kellan MacInnes

PRAISE FOR KELLAN MACINNES:

‘Stylish and experimental’ THE COURIER

‘ …eccentric and off-kilter… Kellan MacInnes has been

willing to experiment with form, structure and language… ’

ALISTAIR BRAIDWOOD

‘He often writes very well… His descriptions of wild

mountain scenery are precise and vivid’ ALLAN MASSIE

‘Fantastic and beautiful writing’ JOYCE MACMILLAN

‘MacInnes has real talent’ THE SCOTSMAN

KELLAN'S NEW BOOK:

Kellan MacInnes has a new book out and its title is ‘The Wild Swimmer of Kintail.’ The author of the acclaimed mountain memoir 'Caleb’s List' is back with a new challenge: wild swimming 28 hill lochs in Kintail, a remote and mountainous area of the Scottish Highlands, in what is a life-affirming tale about the healing power of wild swimming.

ABOUT 'THE WILD SWIMMER OF KINTAIL':

Kellan MacInnes really wants to get away. Newly divorced, HIV positive, flat broke and with a house full of Airbnb guests driving him crazy, he badly needs to find himself again. Inspired by the little known poet and pioneer of wild swimming Brenda G. Macrow, who quit London for the Scottish Highlands in the summer of 1946, Kellan takes the night train north. Accompanied only by a cantankerous and flatulent Labradoodle, Kellan follows in Macrow’s footsteps and sets off in search of the hill lochs of Kintail. Hoping to find his ‘single self’ again on the way, he plans to wild swim all 28 hill lochs within the boundary of the Parish of Kintail. Only being Scotland, half the time it’s too cold to swim, even in July, so he just washes his face or has a paddle!

The book is multi-faceted and there are many different layers to the story. As Kellan tackles the challenge of wild swimming – or at least wild paddling – the hill lochs of Kintail, he recalls scenes from the disintegration of his marriage, some funny, some poignant, some shocking.

Meanwhile a parallel narrative about Macrow’s summer in Scotland in 1946 is told in flashbacks from ‘Kintail Scrapbook’, the book Macrow wrote about her time in Kintail.

The Wild Swimmer of Kintail also contains practical information for those wishing to take on the challenge of wild swimming the 28 high-altitude hill lochs of Kintail.

Far more than a mere travelogue, much more than simply nature writing, The Wild Swimmer of Kintail tells the story of the end of a gay relationship as well as being a deeply perceptive account of what it is like being a writer. Laugh out loud in some places, painfully honest in others, The Wild Swimmer of Kintail is a life-affirming tale about the healing power of wild swimming.

ABOUT KELLAN MACINNES:

Kellan MacInnes has been climbing the mountains of Scotland since he was a teenager. His first book 'Caleb’s List' (Luath Press 2013) was acclaimed by readers, reviewers and mountaineers alike. 'Caleb’s List' went on to be a best seller and as well as being entered for the Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain literature it was shortlisted for the 2013 Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award, Scotland’s most prestigious literary prize.

Kellan's first novel 'The Making of Mickey Bell' (Sandstone Press 2016) received glowing reviews.

Kellan MacInnes holds an honours degree in psychology from the University of Aberdeen. Diagnosed with AIDS related cancer in the late 1990s and given just six months to live, he did what HIV positive people did back then; he packed in his job in social work, cashed in his pension, went home and waited to die. Only he didn’t…

As the years passed and treatments improved, Kellan was able to return to work; first as a volunteer befriender and fundraiser for one of Scotland’s leading HIV charities, then later as a painter and decorator, a life coach, a bike tour guide and a supermarket delivery driver. In 2012 Kellan was awarded a grant by Creative Scotland to help research his next book and to fulfil his ambition to become a writer.

Kellan MacInnes was short listed for the 2013 Jessie Kesson Fellowship and has appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival,the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Tradfest, the Portobello Book Festival, Midfest, Previously Scotland’s History Festival and Stockfest.

As well as writing for Scottish Field, The Sunday Mail, Walk magazine and The Scottish Mountaineer Kellan has been featured in The Scotsman and was interviewed for and took part in the making of a ninety minute long special edition of the BBC Radio Scotland programme Out of Doors, on Victorian mountaineer and naturalist Caleb George Cash, the subject of his book Caleb’s List.

As well as speaking to the Cairngorm Club, Milngavie Mountaineering Club, the Grampian Hillwalking Club and the Ochils Mountaineering Club, Kellan has appeared at the Borders Walking Festival. He has also spoken at events organised by the Colinton Lit, Edinburgh City Libraries, the National Collective and the Arran Antiquarians. Kellan has been interviewed for the popular UK Hillwalking.com website and a copy of Caleb’s List was exhibited in Scottish Publishing’s Leafing Through Natural Scotland exhibition.

Kellan MacInnes lives in Edinburgh with his partner and their dog in one of the streets at the foot of Arthur’s Seat.