Michael Cannon reveals his treasured island!

Scottish author Michael Cannon tells The Sunday Post about his favourite holidays.

Michael Cannon combines his writing with a career at Strathclyde University. One of his previous books mentioned the Clydebank Blitz and Michael revisits the devastating wartime disaster for his latest novel Articles of Faith.

It tells of two children who move to the shipbuilding town with their alcoholic dad just before the Luftwaffe’s lethal blitz in March 1941.

Michael, 56, lives in Waterfoot, just outside Glasgow, with his wife Denise and daughter Rachael, 14. Articles of Faith, published by Freight Books, is out on Monday.

“I grew up in East Kilbride and we were having to holiday on my dad’s tradesman’s wages. So, not-so-exotic locations like Rothesay were where we regularly went.

“We’d rent a house for a fortnight and I remember swimming in the Firth of Clyde in June which was absolutely freezing.

“There was also a salt water pool which wasn’t much warmer. But they were lovely family times. My first foreign holiday was a typical lads’ break in Majorca with my mates when I was 17.

“After that I had a few jaunts to different Greek islands before discovering Spetses. I went there on my first holiday with Denise and we’ve been back many times since. We just love it, as does Rachael.

“You get there on the hydrofoil from Athens. It takes a couple of hours and we thought we’d picked the wrong place at first. When we arrived it was absolutely heaving with people, far busier than we expected.

“But it turned out it was an annual celebration marking a famous battle with the Turks during the Greek War of Independence in 1822. They actually burn a ship in the harbour at night, a bit like our Up Helly Aa.

“It was quite a spectacle. The next day everyone left and it was back to being the lovely, sleepy little Greek island we had expected.

“Unlike some Greek islands it’s very lush and green. It’s just a great place to unwind. We tend to rent places from the locals and they know the best, most inexpensive restaurants.

“They’re not always the main tourist ones but they are excellent. I’m a big fish lover and you won’t get better or fresher.

“Because we’re self-catering we tend to buy local produce and sit on the balcony in the morning, having yoghurt and honey and contemplating the day ahead.

“The other places that are close to my heart are much closer to home. In the early 1980s I worked for 14 months at the Sullom Voe oil terminal in Shetland.

“I hadn’t been back for about 30 years until Denise’s mum bought a wee but and ben up there. We’ve been a couple of times since and it brought the memories flooding back, as did the recent BBC series Shetland.

“In the summer months it’s light almost all the time and when the sun’s out that’s magnificent. But I was obviously working there through the winter tour and I remember hardly seeing daylight.

“One place we’ve been to recently is Kinloch Rannoch in Perthshire. It’s become a new favourite, enjoying the shores of Loch Rannoch and doing some great local walks. I’ve actually written it into the new book.”