Recipes, Tales and Adventures

The Murphy household is a TV-free zone. Beatrix was a Border Collie who wrote her own ending. And somewhere between a campervan in the Lake District and a 17-minute countdown, everything changed.

Evie is back from the campervan hospital, Ursula is loaded up, and the forecast says rain. Naturally, I headed straight for Blair Atholl. Three nights, 48 miles, a castle, chunky chips, a German cyclist's question about midgets, and a man in Dalwhinnie who wouldn't share his bench. All in a day's work.

A weekend in Halifax to watch Dr Rhona Morrison's show at the Victoria Theatre should have been straightforward. It wasn't. A tale of train chaos, a Tunnock's Teacake, four bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk, and why paper tickets might have been right all along.

What happens when you spend a Sunday scrolling through ten years of Facebook posts and accidentally discover you've already written a book? Add a cycling epiphany, a smoking gun from 2017, and a Border Collie with a criminal record, and you'll start to understand my weekend.

In November 2024, I walked into Girvan Primary School with no plan and came home with the seed of an idea that would change everything. This is the story of how The Magical Adventures of Florence the Border Collie went from a single school visit to a 23-book series — and how a Beatrix Potter box set, a brilliant illustrator, and a very lazy Border Collie made it all possible.

I have never been good with numbers. Never. Not even a little bit. This week I've been thinking about the teacher who made sure that never mattered — and about the rather wonderful way life brought her back into mine decades later. Oh, and there's a guitar involved.

There is a version of my life that I've carried around in my head for a long time. Super fit, cycling Scotland, parked up somewhere beautiful in my campervan with a cup of Tetley and a homemade flapjack. But dreams have a habit of arriving slightly different to how you ordered them.

This week, I visited Killin Primary School — the first step in bringing another Florence adventure to life. It got me thinking that people might li...

Did I tell you I love writing? Actually, not just writing. Reading is one of life’s pleasures, and I feel blessed to be able to enjoy it. When othe...

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you might have noticed that I love a good natter with my followers. It’s one of my favourite parts of be...

I should begin with a confession. Mr M does all the shopping, all the cooking, and all the washing up in the Murphy house. I know. I KNOW. The nati...

Eleven years ago today, I opened a tearoom on April Fool's Day. People thought I was mad. They weren't entirely wrong. This is the real story behind The Magical Tearoom on the Hill — and why its second edition feels like the perfect way to mark the anniversary.