About James Penny

A native of Arbroath, a small coastal town in Angus, Scotland, he left school at fifteen to begin an apprenticeship as an engineer. On it's completion he served as an engineer officer in the Merchant Navy for a spell, then left the Merchant service to join the Army. He enlisted in his county regiment, the Black Watch, and served with them for six years, then volunteered for the Special Air Service. On passing the selection he spent sixteen years with that Regiment before retiring from the Army in the rank of WO2.

David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, then employed him, in the formation and management of a Salmon Fishery District Board on the West Coast of Scotland. After eight years as Superintendent he returned to the East Coast to try his hand as a self employed water colour artist, painting mainly land and seascapes, before taking early retirement.
The book is the result of his complete inability to resist trying something 'different', as indeed was his foray into painting watercolours for a living. An avid reader of history he chose to write of the period that most intrigues him. It had the added bonus of needing the minimum amount of research, he having been studying it for many years.
He spends an inordinate amount of time in pubs indulging in his first love, that of Scots and Irish music, playing a
variety of stringed instruments in varying degrees of mediocrity, along with other musicians in the many 'sessions ' that are so much part of life where he lives.
Married, with three sons and two grandchildren, he has settled a few miles from where he was born.
 

© Copyright James Penny 2007