Robbie Brechin had a childhood steeped in British comics like The Beezer or The Dandy. In fact, DC Thomson and its imaginative, whimsical contributors were arguably the most [...] books: Enid Blyton. Robert Louis Stevenson and Rider Haggard. Later: Jack Kerouac, Hunter S Thompson, Graham Greene, Tom Sharpe, Spike Milligan, Raymond Chandler, James Lee Burke, Eveline Waugh, Peter Ackroyd, Hilary Mantel, Robert Caro and Jeremy Clarkson.I was able to leave the very weak scent of a few of my literary heroes when I landed a job as a trainee reporter on the Campbeltown Courier, landing an interview with Jack Bruce of the rock band Cream. To my joy, that yarn over a pint was published by a special favourite of mine in the last century, The New Musical Express. Hello Nick Kent, Charles Shaar [...] the line of duty (such expenses-paid, junket hardship!) I swapped jokes with Prime Ministers, got to meet favourite rock stars, pretended not to notice the stale breath of an IRA terrorist in an up-close interview in a doorway, was banished from the Royal Yacht Britannia for insolence in a colour article published on the front page of the Adelaide [...]'s enough humble bragging from me. And don't even ask about hobbies. (Whisper: I am a Virgo) Though you mayone day hear in the media of one of my three grandchildren, Kai, Imani and Sierra.