Tha Tormod toilichte
ann an Uibhist

Tha Tormod toilichte ann an Uibhist

by Archie MacKay

“OH YES! Tormod can talk’, as Norman himself freely admits in his sell-out autobiography, The Leper’s Bell. Indeed, confirmation of this already fairly well established fact is cemented moments after I knock on the great man’s door in Daliburgh: even before it’s opened, the muffled sounds from inside suggest that the interview has already begun.  After about five minutes of sitting listening to this opening gambit I decide it has and that I better start recording.

That the book has sold out its first two hardback printings is not entirely a cause for celebration. ‘What do you think?’ Norman asks. ‘Do you think they printed enough? They weren’t going to print the paperback until August, but now they’ve had to bring it forward to May,’ he tells me.

He’s confused, and I admit I am too. It’s difficult to believe that Birlinn could have underestimated the selling power of the man famously described as the Gàidhealtachd’s own Billy Connolly (I neglected to ask him if he found the tag irritating, but my own guess would be that he doesn’t see the necessity of being compared to anyone else) and who numbers the Big Yin and Sean Connery among his fan base (we’ll get on to Brigitte Bardot later), but it appears that is precisely what they have done…

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