“Very extraordinary things can be found in ordinary places” Simon Varwell

Last night the Nairn Book shop put on a talk by Inverness based travel writer Simon Varwell and a remarkable evening’s entertainment it was too as Simon articulated his modus operandi with a set of images and a few extracts from his books.

His website proclaims: “I’m interested in the curious and unusual lurking among the everyday; and I enjoy finding unexpected beauty in the mundanity that lies far off the typical traveller’s bucket list.”  Those that know the stops on the Inverness Edinburgh service by heart will surely agree that many of them could well be described as filling the mundane criteria but what lies beyond those limited vistas we get from the train of those towns and villages we have travelled through so many times but know so little of? Over the course of six days in 2012 Simon travelled the line and stopped off at all twenty-three stations. “The Next Stop – Inverness to Edinburgh, station by station was the fruit of that expedition  

There’s much more to Simon’s writing than the Inverness-Edinburgh line however and he has two other travel books under his belt. More details on them here. This observer enjoyed the talk immensely and has found Simon’s website equally entertaining too after a wee browse of some of the sections. The author’s books (very competively priced are available in the Nairn Book Shop.