New book celebrates our other national dish

Glasgow-based Deedee Cuddihy, who has links to the town going back almost 50 years and once worked as a reporter on the News & Chronicle, interviewed hundreds of people across Scotland for ‘The Wee Guide to Porridge’.

Deedee said: “I had just started research for my porridge book when I was invited to give a talk on my work as an author to the Watershed group which meets in the Link Centre.

“I decided to ask members if they had any porridge stories and I was delighted with the response. I got some brilliant material including an anecdote from one woman about helping her mum stir the breakfast porridge - standing on a stool beside the cooker - for her 10 brothers and sisters.

“Another member of the group recalled a traumatic experience at a boarding house in Blackpool when, aged eight, she witnessed a furious argument between two children which ended with one of them pouring hot porridge down the other’s back.

“Not surprisingly, it put her off porridge for years!”

Deedee has already published a number of successful books on a Scottish theme, among them “I Love Irn-Bru” and “Only in Dundee”.

“The Wee Guide to Porridge” is available, priced £6, from selected book stores, gift shops and at www.funnyscottishbooks.co.uk