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.

I have always been quite careful when I have been approached to do a television project to have the option of writing the accompanying book.

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.

My father was a self-employed, commission-only salesman. He sold double-glazing and fitted kitchens, amongst other things. As he never declared himself unemployed, there was never recourse to benefits, so if money was tight, money was tight. It taught me that we were a closed unit, and that we had to be resourceful.

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

My father's example taught me self-reliance, to make my own luck, and to work to make things happen.