About Gilbert - our Scottish copywriter

Gilbert wrote his first main guide for VisitScotland a long time ago and refuses to be more specific. Suffice it to say that the national board came back time and time again over the years and Gilbert wrote on everything from practical information on tipping taxi drivers to the life of Mary, Queen of Scots.

As a copywriter, he is happy to write anonymously; in fact, he believes that self-effacement could be developed as an art form.

He has published books with the AA, HarperCollins, A & C Black and Simon & Schuster. He was the former Scottish editor for the New York based Fodor's Guides, where he once dealt with an editor who thought a sheep-dog was an animal with a woolly coat that barked. From that he first learned that no one in Scottish tourism should assume any potential visitor has any knowledge of Scotland whatsoever.

In his formative years in an east-coast fishing town, he first appreciated the creative stimulus of a slap in the face with a wet fish when he regularly walked into them, as his granny used to air dry cod on her washing line and visiting her house after dark was hazardous. (This is true, honestly, though only mentioned as a traditional Scottish experience.) Since that time, he has encountered fish several times in his career, including a spell as marketing manager at Edinburgh Zoo, where his office was in the old aquarium (rather damp and now demolished).

Later, he discovered the local council had built an aquarium near his doorstep. Unable to resist the siren call of the haddock, he managed this attraction through its opening phase and for the first few years of its existence. In spite of acquiring the name Macduff Marine Aquarium, probably the second-worst marketing name in the world (after Duff House, the excellent local art gallery), this fishy endeavour became the top new attraction in Scotland and the second-top in the UK out of the 56 paying attractions which opened in 1997, according to VisitBritain statistics. (Yes, that was a long sentence for a copywriter - but packed with information.)

Gilbert offers huge amounts of Scotland product knowledge and is known in the tourism industry for delivering accurate and well-researched Scottish copy to the travel trade and publishers. He also has practical experience of SEO, writing web optimised copy and also marketing visitor attractions.

Check out the great testimonial about his work under from Mackerel Media dated Jan 20th, 2010