Vee Walker, brought up in the Highlands and based in the Black Isle, wears many literary and community hats. For over twenty years she worked in heritage interpretation, helping people and places worldwide to share their stories through the written word, poetry and drama. An award-winning novelist and short-story writer, she has been a prizewinner at/commended for/shortlisted for the 2019 SAHR Awards for Military History Fiction (for Major Tom’s War); the 2019 Hugh Miller Prize for Fiction (for Cinder Toffee); the 2021 Kelpies Prize (for The Tale of Eppy Hogg) and the 2023 Edinburgh Prize (her short story Foraging by Numbers will appear in its next anthology).

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Vee is currently working with a translator on the French edition of Major Tom’s War (largely set in Flanders), which will be published under the title Grande Guerre, Petits Destins. The archive on which Major Tom’s War is based can be viewed here.  Vee can supply signed copies of the paperback of Major Tom’s War direct and further copies of the paperback and the ebook are available via www.kashihouse.com.

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Vee’s next epic saga/adventure story, The Patiala Letter, is in final draft.

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The highlight of her writing life so far was a three-week solo book tour of Punjab and Delhi by road, train and tuktuk in 2019, which enabled Vee to meet the descendants of some of the soldiers alongside whom Tom Westmacott fought in WWI. She hopes to return to India once The Patiala Letter is published, as it is set largely in Punjab and Afghanistan. Vee blogged about her 2019 adventures in India at https://blog.majortomswar.com (first is Preconceptions, last is My Regimental Family).

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Vee has recently launched CannyEdit, a Highland-based editorial support service with fellow author Margaret Kirk, doyenne of Highland Noir. Both are experienced editors as well as published authors. Work has flooded in since the launch so there is clearly a demand for professional editing services here.

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Why editing? Well, writing can be a solitary pursuit. Vee likes to write long books quite slowly with meticulous research and the process can sometimes be a bit solitary. Editing the work of others means meeting and assisting lots of different writers with varying needs and (whisper it) this can sometimes be more fun than writing her own work! Vee loves to travel, too, and editing, like writing, can be undertaken anywhere in the world with a decent wifi connection.

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The CannyEdit team plan to pop up at local book festivals and to host future HighlandLIT workshop events on self-editing. CannyEdit can be contacted here.

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Vee is also an Accommodating Author: The Chanonry Bolthole, her cosy AirBnB wing, well set up for a spot of quiet revision or writing between March and November, offers delicious in-house catering and often welcomes guests seeking literary inspiration. More information here.

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Always happy to have a chat over a Canny coffee!​

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