Robin Pilcher's Blog › Meet the Family

Meet the Family

Published 1 year ago

How remiss of the Shortbread team - quite unforgivable! You get invited to a party and you expect to get introduced. The site has had a new background up for about two weeks and our new characters have been floating around in their balloons, doing exactly what we’ve asked them to, and our members are none the wiser as to whom they all are. I apologize and will rectify that immediately.

Let us start with the fellow in literary flow to the right of the screen. Shorty Breadalbane is a native of Aviemore in the central Highlands of Scotland. He was brought up there by his mother, Agnes MacGuinness, on a small council estate, but you will note, however, that his name bears signs of aristocracy. This was because his mother had once worked in a shooting lodge at Dalnakiel where the gentry would come to take advantage of the abundant game that inhabited the surrounding hills. It also included anything else they could lay their hands on – Agnes included. Not long after his birth, Agnes was able to ascertain her son’s proper surname as there had only been one gentleman in the shooting lodge at the time who had been both vertically challenged and blessed with carrot-orange hair. Shorty was given his nickname on his first day at primary school.

Despite this faltering start, Shorty has since led an active and fulfilling life, working both as a ski instructor and a member of the mountain rescue team in the Cairngorms. Over the years, his friendly moustachio-ed face has been a welcome sight for many a stranded and near-hypothermic hill walker. Now retired, he spends his time pumping out short stories about stem christies and corries and is founder member of the Rothiemurchus Writers’ Group. He has kindly offered his services as guest editor to Shortbread when no-one else is forthcoming.

Now, the young lady to the bottom left of screen is Relia Raluca Hasdeu, known to everyone as RRH. Relia was brought up by her grandmother in a small cottage somewhere in the forests of Eastern Europe. At the age of twelve, she was saved from the jaws of a wolf (which had just finished devouring her granny) by British explorer and travel writer Montague Finslet. He adopted the girl and brought her back to England where he wrote a famous book about her past. It has since become a children’s best seller.

You will all know RRH as our ‘cover girl’ since the Shortbread site was launched, but she has now benefited from a complete makeover at the hands of our illustrator, Jon Bishop (The Grey Earl), which has certainly brought a new rosy glow to her cheeks.

Finally, bottom right of screen, we have Wilf, the rather peculiar-looking wolf. From an early age, Wilf was made to feel that his un-wolf-like appearance excluded him from doing normal wolfy things like eating sheep and grannies and the like, and so he lost himself in heavy metal music. He was never to be seen without a set of stereo plugs stuck into his ears. However, when introduced to Shortbread, Wilf soon became hooked and has become our leading expert and critic on all Shortbread audio stories.

The only one of our characters to be salaried, Wilf will be giving his own audio recommendations to you very soon. We think he’s worth listening to – as are the stories!

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