Roger Hutchinson (born 1949) is a British author and journalist. Hutchinson was born at

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4.3 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Historically in Lancashire, Farnworth lies on the River Ir ...

, near

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

, in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, but lives on

Raasay Raasay (; gd, Ratharsair) or the Isle of Raasay is an island between the Isle of Skye and the mainland of Scotland. It is separated from Skye by the Sound of Raasay and from Applecross by the Inner Sound. It is famous for being the birt ...

, off the east coast of Skye.

Education

Hutchinson attended

Bretton Hall College Bretton Hall College of Education was a higher education college in West Bretton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It opened as a teacher training college in 1949 with awards from the University of Leeds. The college merged with the Univ ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

to study English.

Career

In the late 1960s, around the time he studied English at

, he founded and edited 'Sad Traffic', published from a small office in Barnsley, which ran for five issues before morphing into

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

's alternative newspaper, Styng (Sad Traffic Yorkshire News & Gossip). He then moved to London and edited '' OZ'', '' International Times'' and the magazine '' Time Out''. In the late 1970s Hutchinson moved to Skye to become a journalist on the ''

West Highland Free Press The ''West Highland Free Press'' was founded in the Scottish Highlands in 1972 as a left-wing weekly newspaper, but with the principal objective of providing its immediate circulation area with the service which a local paper is expected to pr ...

''. Since 1999 he has lived on Raasay. He has also served as editor of the '' Stornoway Gazette''.

Books

As of 2017, Hutchinson has written 15 non-fiction books. ''Polly, The True Story Behind Whisky Galore'' (1990) was about the SS ''Politician'', the ship which was wrecked on the Outer Hebrides with a cargo of whisky which inspired the book and film '' Whisky Galore''. Hutchinson wrote ''The Real Story of England's 1966 World Cup Triumph ...it is now!'' in 1995. This book follows the career of Sir Alf Ramsey from his early days in Dagenham through to the 1966 victory. His book ''The Soap Man:

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

Harris Harris may refer to: Places Canada * Harris, Ontario * Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine) * Harris, Saskatchewan * Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan Scotland * Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle of ...

and

Lord Leverhulme William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , (, ; 19 September 1851 – 7 May 1925) was an English industrialist, philanthropist, and politician. Having been educated at a small private school until the age of nine, then at church school ...

'' (2003), was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. ''Calum's Road'' (2006), about Raasay crofter Calum MacLeod who hand-built a road to his croft, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's

Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...

. In 2012 Hutchinson published ''The Silent Weaver'', the story of the

Uist "Uist" is a group of six islands and are part of the Outer Hebridean Archipelago, part of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. North Uist and South Uist ( or ; gd, Uibhist ) are two of the islands and are linked by causeways running via the isles ...

-raised crofter Angus MacPhee who suffered a schizophrenic breakdown during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and subsequently spent 50 years in Craig Dunain Hospital near Inverness where he developed skill in weaving grass taken from the hospital grounds. As of 2018, Hutchinson's most recent book is ''The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker: The story of Britain through its Census, since 1801'' (2017).

References

External links

Profile
at Scottish Book Trust 1949 births Living people English writers English male journalists People from the Isle of Skye Alumni of Bretton Hall College {{UK-writer-stub