Alexander James MacDonald
Alexander James MacDonald is a native of the Strath of Kildonan in Sutherland, Scotland. He is usually known as Alex (pronounced Alek). From an early age his imagination was stimulated by stories, whether from Scottish history and legend or from the Bible. He also loved music, traditional Scottish music and song, and Psalms and hymns. In his teens he learned to play guitar and soon after started writing songs. He attended Golspie High School, but was more influenced by literature not on the curriculum, like the writings of Neil Gunn and the songs of Robert Burns and Bob Dylan, than by Shakespeare and Wordsworth.
He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MA in philosophy and psychology after changing course from the Medical Faculty (he says Medicine didn’t agree with him). During that time he pursued music and drama, appearing in several theatrical productions, including at the Church Hill and Playhouse Theatres. At the same time he was wrestling with how his Christian faith related to all that was going on in the world of the late Sixties, and was greatly helped by the writings of Francis Schaeffer and later C S Lewis. He felt drawn to a career in music and theatre, but thought he should get a good grounding in his faith by studying theology first.
This quickly developed into a call to be a preacher, and for the next forty years he was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland in the Glasgow area, Aberdeen and latterly Edinburgh, as well as being chaplain to schools, a mental hospital, colleges and universities. He edited the denominational magazine ‘The Record’ and wrote several books including one on a Christian view on environmental issues, called ‘Creation in Crisis?’ and another on people who met Jesus, called ‘Tell me the Story’.
In the early years of the new millennium, one of his sons who had a small recording studio encouraged him to record some of his songs. The opening track of the resulting album, ‘Like the River’, told the tall tale of how an old Highland crofter proved the nemesis of an Edinburgh drug baron. A friend said, “It’s a film that song”, with the result that Alex wrote a film script and attempted to arouse interest from various contacts in the film industry but without success. One day he thought, “Why not write the book?” and the result is The Forge, which has received praise from such diverse figures as historian Owen Dudley Edwards and Calum Macdonald of the band Runrig.
His most recent work is the edition of his father's memoirs, 'And the Shepherd Sang'. Colin MacDonald was a well known shepherd and singer in the Strath of Kildonan in the County of Sutherland.
