AN AUTHOR from Musselburgh is celebrating writing a global bestseller.

Fiona Curnow’s Before The Swallows Come Back is a book of literary fiction set predominantly in the Highlands of Scotland.

It is now “flying around the world”, having been a bestseller in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, she said.

Fiona, a Fisherrow resident, said: “It is a poignant story of bigotry, survival and love, with an underlying thread of conservation and rewilding.

“The fictional setting, Durnoch estate, has a life-changing impact on each of the central characters’ lives.”

Before The Swallows Come Back is an international bestseller

Fiona spent 15 years teaching in international schools, mainly in Eastern Europe, before becoming ill and having to return home.

She said: “No longer able to work and not one to remain idle, I turned to the Open University, where I studied creative writing, completing both courses with distinction.

“I have since written five books – four under the pen name of F J Curlew – and find it difficult to be content without a work in progress.

“That escape into a world of my making is something very special.

“Before The Swallows Come Back was sparked by a meeting I had with a tinker family many years ago in rural Perthshire.

“They invited me to sit by their fire, outside their bender, and listen to stories. It was fascinating, inspirational and never left me.

“The conservation of our natural habitats and their wildlife is hugely important to me – I am a bit of an eco-warrior – and the tinkers and their way of life seemed to lend themselves to carrying this theme.”

She added: “I was quietly pottering along, daydreaming about stories as I wandered along the beach, walked around the lagoons with my trusty companion, Brockie the Springer, putting thoughts onto paper, publishing books, selling a few, but not getting anywhere.

“That was fine. It was the writing that was important – that gave me a focus, that kept me sane.

“And then I won the Federation of Writers (Scotland) short story competition in 2023 and my world changed.

“My book started selling, first in tens, that was nice, then in hundreds, that was amazing, and now it’s flying around the world, having been a bestseller in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.

“I still wake up in disbelief.

“On the back of the success of Before The Swallows my previous book, The Unravelling of Maria, set in East Lothian, Edinburgh, Estonia and Siberia, has also started selling.”

Before The Swallows Come Back is available on Amazon and all major online stores.

It can also be ordered through bookshops.