NEW author Callum Robinson has combined his passion for woodwork with a talent for writing to release his debut novel.

Callum, 42, is the son of a master woodworker and as a child spent much of his time playing amongst the sycamore, oak and Scots pine trees that bordered his home near Drem.

As a teenager, he attended North Berwick High School and still loved watching simple wood transform into intricate furniture in his father’s workshop. 

Callum’s love for writing was evident even as a school pupil.

He told the Courier: “Anybody who was ever on the school bus with me would know that that's what I used to do.

“The only outlet I had really was kind of writing about the things that we made.”

In time, he became his father’s apprentice, helping to create exquisite bespoke objects.

Eventually, he established his own workshop, taking on the more corporate side of the job with commercial projects and an abundance of business meetings. 

In his debut novel Ingrained, Callum tells the story of returning to the workshop and to the satisfaction of creating something with his own hands.

Callum describes it as very similar to writing in this way, with the satisfaction of seeing a finished product making the hard work worthwhile. 

He said: “It’s just got 80,000 moving parts!”

The process of creating the book took about 18 months from proposal to publication.

Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman was published on August 22 by Doubleday, and Callum has since been kept busy with signings and talks across the UK.

He has taken part in talks at Waterstones in Glasgow; Wig Time; Cheltenham Literary Festival; two festivals in Devon; and recently a signing at Night Owl Books in East Linton.

Callum used to wake up early in the morning to enjoy time to himself before his flatmates woke up, and that habit has proved helpful when trying to write a book alongside working.

He said: “I carved out time first thing, getting up at three or four o’clock in the morning before anybody else is up, before my wife is up. 

“Me and the dog would come out to the woodshed with a cup of coffee and try to bash away at it.

“I tried to work back through 10 years of professional woodwork and figure out which stories I might be able to use to tell the story of what it's like to be a woodworker.”

His dad still works in the workshop and recently his carvings of otters swimming through solid wood have become famous, after Callum posted photos to his social media last year, gaining more than six million views.

Callum's dad David Robinson is one of just 40 in the UK to be given the title of 'Master Carver'

Callum has a few copies of Ingrained and has given some away to people who feature throughout, and says that others reading the book is “the biggest thrill for me by a mile”.

He added: “My dad is a very central character in the book. I checked and he’s mentioned 153 times, which he says is not enough!”

Callum is still being kept busy, with upcoming stops on his UK tour including St Andrews, Cheltenham and Norwich, and will be travelling to America this month ahead of the book’s US release in December. 

Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman is available to buy at penguin.co.uk/books/458180/ingrained-by-robinson-callum