After I graduated from the University of Glasgow, I was a self-employed archaeologist going from dig to dig around Scotland, and it was not well-paid. I was an excavator, not a lecturer as well, so paying rent on a flat was tricky. In the end I decided to retrain as a journalist as I couldn't see a future in it.

I want to look beyond the legends, to find the real story of Scotland. And it's every bit as thrilling.

I delivered leaflets for my dad and was paid £5 per thousand, which was slave labour.

I worked on local papers, before taking a job as a webmaster with a very well known telecommunications company in London, as I thought the internet was the future.

I live in a perpetual present. I don't look back and I don't look forward. I just live from week to week.

My wife has always supported me in my career, even when there were times when it was more sensible to get a job. It has been her confidence in me that has helped enormously.

After I graduated from the University of Glasgow, I was a self-employed archaeologist going from dig to dig around Scotland, and it was not well-paid. I was an excavator, not a lecturer as well, so paying rent on a flat was tricky. In the end I decided to retrain as a journalist as I couldn't see a future in it.