Neil Drysdale

3 weeks ago | pressandjournal.co.uk | Neil Drysdale

It’s one of the great mysteries in Scottish political history: the death of prominent lawyer, former soldier, anti-nuclear campaigner and SNP vice-chairman Willie McRae in April 1985. When you are examining the evidence, one route takes you down the X-Files rabbit hole into a conspiracy to hush up an establishment-backed murder in the Highlands.

3 weeks ago | pressandjournal.co.uk | Neil Drysdale

Karen Brady has never forgotten the song that was playing when she realised she was about to give birth. The NHS Grampian theatre worker was at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 2012 when, suddenly, to the strains of Don McLean’s American Pie, she went into labour – and nobody was more surprised than her because her son entered the world six weeks early.

1 month ago | pressandjournal.co.uk | Neil Drysdale

Peter Argyle knows about putting life in its proper perspective. After all, the former Liberal Democrat councillor in Deeside had to deal with the news that his wife, Natalia, had suffered grievous injuries when her car collided with a lorry while she was driving from Aberdeen to Torphins in 2013. He was at home with their son, Sasha – who was just 21 months old at the time – when the police arrived at the door and the family’s world changed forever.

1 month ago | pressandjournal.co.uk | Neil Drysdale

Gothenburg Great Neil Simpson has spoken of his delight at being given a specially-created team chart of the most famous match in Aberdeen’s history. Simpson and his team mates who beat Real Madrid to win the European Cup Winners Cup in 1983 have received the unique memento from TV commentator Clive Tyldesley. It records detailed notes on all the players in both line-ups who were involved in the Dons’ against-the-odds 2-1 victory at the Ullevi stadium.

1 month ago | pressandjournal.co.uk | Neil Drysdale

Fact and fiction sometimes collide in spectacular fashion. Such as when I’m talking to Lorraine Kelly about her love of Orkney and she tells me: “If I had a magic wand, I would live up there.”And then the conversation moved on to what sounded like Harry Potter. Erm, hang on a minute. In the event, though, Lorraine was actually referring to Andrew Appleby, a master of ceramics who has been working at his kiln on the island for the last 50 years.