| Administrative History | John Reid worked as a farm hand on farms in Buchan and Formartine, and taught himself to write in his spare time. Under the pseudonym, David Toulmin, he began writing articles for local newspapers and periodicals, and from the early 1970s, when his first book was published, achieved literary acclaim and commercial success with a series of novels set in the North East of Scotland, including Hard Shining Corn (Aberdeen: Impulse, 1972), A Chiel Among Them: a Scots Miscellany (Aberdeen: Gourdas House, 1982), and Blown Seed (Edinburgh: Harris, 1976). He developed a life-long friendship with John R. Allan, author of Farmer's Boy and other stories, who proof read and commented on his early writing. |
| Publication Note | David Toulmin, Hard Shining Corn (Aberdeen: Impulse, 1972); Straw into Gold: a Scots Miscellany (Aberdeen: Impulse, 1973); Blown Seed (Edinburgh: Harris, 1978); Harvest Home (Edinburgh: Harris, 1978); The Tillycorthie Story (Aberdeen: The Centre for Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen, 1986); The Clyack Sheaf: Sketches of Life and Characters in Northeast Scotland (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986); Travels Without a Donkey: Windscreen Memoirs of Scotland and Northumbria (Aberdeen: Gourdas, 1980); A Chiel among Them: a Scots Miscellany (Aberdeen: Gourdas House, 1982); |