Valerie Gillies received a Creative Scotland Award in 2005 to write The Spring Teller, a book of landmark poems inspired by Scotland’s wells and springs, and is currently completing this after travelling to many locations in Scotland and Ireland. The collection will be published by Luath press in 2008.
Valerie describes the work:
"The Spring Teller has become a project on a grand scale. I continue to travel to the springs and wells, learning the lore surrounding them and the cures sought at them."
Read a selection of poetry from The Spring Teller...
Note: Writing the Balm Well and Monk's Well (St Andrews) has changed the environment of these wells. Performing the poems in public has encouraged local residents to look after their own wells in a more fitting manner. The power of poetry!