Flora Johnston's Avatar

Flora Johnston

@florajowriter

Scottish fiction writer. The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay and The Paris Peacemakers available now. Represented by Jenny Brown Associates.

518
Followers
536
Following
72
Posts
14.11.2024
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Flora Johnston @florajowriter

Preview
March 2026: making sense of the story Stories from Scotland and beyond

open.substack.com/pub/florajoh...

02.03.2026 09:03 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Welcome to my February newsletter Stories from Scotland and beyond

florajohnston.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

04.02.2026 08:13 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Petition: By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party When an MP decides they want to defect to another party a by-election should be automatically triggered to allow the constituents the opportunity have their democratic right to agree or not with their...

🚨By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party - lets get this to the 100,000 signatures needed

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

17.01.2026 09:07 πŸ‘ 1944 πŸ” 1214 πŸ’¬ 126 πŸ“Œ 94
Post image

Welcome to my January newsletter!

open.substack.com/pub/florajoh...

05.01.2026 09:25 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Flora Johnston writer Stories from Scotland and beyond

open.substack.com/pub/florajoh...

12.12.2025 12:32 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Set 1918-1920 this focuses on two sisters and the parts they play in what comes after the War. Stella goes to Paris as a typist at the peace conference; Corran joins the YMCA School of Education to teach soldiers about to be demobbed. Loved it @florajowriter.bsky.social @allisonandbusby.bsky.social

22.10.2025 18:50 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed it!

22.10.2025 19:18 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

See you there! Looking forward to it.

04.10.2025 09:00 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Sgt Peppers album cover consisting of things that only made it because of immigration in to the UK, either immigrants themselves, the children of or as a result of someone else coming here.

Sgt Peppers album cover consisting of things that only made it because of immigration in to the UK, either immigrants themselves, the children of or as a result of someone else coming here.

Farage wanting to kick people out of the country because they migrated here made me angry and made me think about which best of British people and things wouldn't have happened were it not for the brilliance of immigration to the UK.

24.09.2025 16:39 πŸ‘ 881 πŸ” 316 πŸ’¬ 30 πŸ“Œ 17
The programme for this year's Bookmark book festival in Blairgowrie,  4-5 October.  Tickets www.bookmarkblair.com

The programme for this year's Bookmark book festival in Blairgowrie, 4-5 October. Tickets www.bookmarkblair.com

The programme for this year's Bookmark Blairgowrie book festival. A really excellent, high quality book festival in the heart of Perthshire. This year feat. @seanluskauthor.bsky.social @linanderson.bsky.social @billykayscot.bsky.social @florajowriter.bsky.social and many others. Well worth a visit.

16.09.2025 07:52 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The 2025 Portobello Book Festival Programme is now available! Portobello Book Festival: 3rd – 5th October 2025Tickets for all events are free and available from Portobello Library The programme for this year’s festival was officially launched at the library last night. Copies are now available to pick up from the library and you’ll find them in various places around Portobello too. Tickets will be available to collect in person from the library from 10am on Saturday morning, 13th September.

The 2025 Portobello Book Festival Programme is now available!

Portobello Book Festival: 3rd – 5th October 2025Tickets for all events are free and available from Portobello Library The programme for this year’s festival was officially launched at the library last night. Copies are now available to…

05.09.2025 07:12 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
Preview
The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay: The compelling historical novel inspired by the pioneering Scottish aviator Buy The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay: The compelling historical novel inspired by the pioneering Scottish aviator by Johnston, Flora (ISBN: 9780749031473) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Congratulations to Flora Johnston on the paperback launch of 'The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay' The compelling historical novel inspired by the pioneering Scottish aviator www.amazon.co.uk/Endeavour-El... @florajowriter.bsky.social
#HistoricalFiction #Booklaunch #Booksky πŸ’™πŸ“š

21.08.2025 09:08 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Thank you!

21.08.2025 10:01 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image Post image

Coming up in the second hour of theΒ #TREBookshow, withΒ Hannah MurrayΒ from 21.00CET - Ed Needham, editor of Strong Words Magazine , β€ͺ@ragriggsauthor.bsky.social‬ , and @florajowriter.bsky.social ‬ #TuneInΒ onΒ https://tre.radioΒ or TRE Radio App

16.08.2025 18:50 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Coming soon: the third Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival. Tickets for all events available now! @EdWomensFicFest The third Edinburgh Women's Fiction Festival will be taking place on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th September and I'm delighted to be part of the blogging team once again. Over the next few weeks in the lead up to the festival, all of us on the blogging team will be featuring the authors who are taking part. As the website says, this festival is celebration of writing for, by, and about women.

Coming soon: the third Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival. Tickets for all events available now! @EdWomensFicFest

The third Edinburgh Women's Fiction Festival will be taking place on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th September and I'm delighted to be part of the blogging team once again. Over the next…

05.08.2025 08:00 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Paperback copies of the novel The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay on a garden table

Paperback copies of the novel The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay on a garden table

Look who's arrived in paperback! Well hello there, Elsie!
#TheEndeavourofElsieMackay

25.07.2025 14:40 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This is so niche I can't believe I am asking, but does anyone know anyone who might be an expert in Protestantism in Italy during the Reformation? (Stranger things have happened). RTs welcome.

22.07.2025 17:10 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 78 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 2

Link isn't working for me, Rob.

10.07.2025 07:56 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Extract from a review of The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay

Extract from a review of The Endeavour of Elsie Mackay

Thrilled to read this review of #TheEndeavourofElsieMackay in @writing.ie
'... a beautifully written historical fiction novel set against the bustling shipyards of the Clyde in Glasgow between 1927 and 1928 amid the burgeoning beginning of the golden age of aviation.'
www.writing.ie/readers/the-...

30.06.2025 19:45 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
George Square
by Jackie Kay

My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress.
β€˜What a pair the two of us are!’
my mother said, β€˜Me with my sore wrist,
you with your bad eyes, your soft thumbs!’

And off they went, my two parents
to march against the war in Iraq,
him with his plastic hips, her with her arthritis
to congregate at George Square where the banners
waved at each other like old friends, flapping,
where they’d met for so many marches over their years,
for peace on earth, for pity’s sake, for peace, for peace.

George Square by Jackie Kay My seventy-seven-year-old father put his reading glasses on to help my mother do the buttons on the back of her dress. β€˜What a pair the two of us are!’ my mother said, β€˜Me with my sore wrist, you with your bad eyes, your soft thumbs!’ And off they went, my two parents to march against the war in Iraq, him with his plastic hips, her with her arthritis to congregate at George Square where the banners waved at each other like old friends, flapping, where they’d met for so many marches over their years, for peace on earth, for pity’s sake, for peace, for peace.

My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress…

β€”β€œGeorge Square”, by Jackie Kay
LIFE MASK, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 2005

Hear Jackie Kay read this poem on the @thepoetryarchive.bsky.social:
poetryarchive.org/poem/george-...

22.06.2025 11:05 πŸ‘ 59 πŸ” 22 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 3
Post image

It's rainy but what a view. Hi Dundee Book Festival πŸ‘‹ If you're in Dundee come in out of the wet at 4.30 to hear @florajowriter.bsky.social and I with all the histfic chat. tix: dundeebookfestival.com/product/sara-s…

14.06.2025 07:28 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Columba and my calling. June the 9th is Saint Columba’s day, a saint who has a special place for me, as somehow, he feels bound up in my own journey to Faith. When I was 19, and moving fromΒ  atheism, towards a great…

A sonnet for St. Columba's day
You called me and I came to Colmcille
To learn at last the meaning of my name
Though you yourself were called, and not the caller,
He called through you and when He called I came
malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/06/09/c....

09.06.2025 18:26 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image

Lovely evening celebrating the publication of #WhispersintheGlen by Sue Lawrence at Edinburgh Blackwell's. A trip to Glen Clova is now a must do for this summer!

@jennybrownagency.bsky.social @saraband-books.bsky.social

06.06.2025 07:39 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

We're thrilled to welcome back Susan Elsley with her #shortstory Sheepskin, out tomorrow @susanelsley.bsky.social

17.05.2025 09:43 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Top Ten Tuesday 6th May 2025: Authors Who Live In My Country #Scotland | #TopTenTuesday #amreading #bookrecommendations #TuesdayBookBlog This week's topic: Authors Who Live In My Country Today's topic was submitted by Jennifer @ Funk-N-Fiction and we've to come up with ten authors who live in our country (or state). I've chosen ten authors who live in Scotland and chosen a book from each which I especially enjoyed. These are authors I rate highly and whose books I highly recommend.

Top Ten Tuesday 6th May 2025: Authors Who Live In My Country #Scotland | #TopTenTuesday #amreading #bookrecommendations #TuesdayBookBlog

This week's topic: Authors Who Live In My Country Today's topic was submitted by Jennifer @ Funk-N-Fiction and we've to come up with ten authors who live in our…

06.05.2025 07:30 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Wow, thank you, Joanne!

06.05.2025 15:28 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

So pleased to see Elsie included in Scottish Field's feature on 50 Greatest Scotswomen, accompanied by this haunting sketch of her by Sandy Morrison @sandysdrawingsroom.
#gettingtheexposureshedeserves
#TheEndeavourofElsieMackay

26.04.2025 18:07 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Good Friday: the first 12 Stations of the Cross image courtesy of my Anthology of poems for Leant and Holy Week The Word in the Wilderness, I set just one of my Stations of the cross sonnets for Good Friday, Station XII, but as this blog is not …

See, as they strip the robe from off his back
And spread his arms and nail them to the cross,
The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
And love is firmly fastened onto loss.

malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/04/18/g...

18.04.2025 09:35 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Video thumbnail

Shelly-Ann racing in her kid's Parents Day race at the school is the funniest thing I've seen all week LMAO

17.04.2025 12:05 πŸ‘ 7525 πŸ” 1553 πŸ’¬ 193 πŸ“Œ 638
stylised sketch of four books in a pile with the words 'Meet the Author' overaid

stylised sketch of four books in a pile with the words 'Meet the Author' overaid

Let's hear from all you writers today, tell us all a little bit about yourself, what projects you have on the go, what you have written, any events in the near future, or just drop your bio and links and follow and support each other

#WritersLiftWednesday #Writers #Authors #WritersLift #BookSky πŸ’™πŸ“š

16.04.2025 05:12 πŸ‘ 86 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 56 πŸ“Œ 4