Button Bog – a new book from Scottish Traveller author Jess Smith

Button Bog - Voices and Treasures from a Traveller’s Kist, by Jess Smith

Button Bog is about the power of ‘Story’ and those who keep it alive. For every tale has a beating heart, and in many cases, wings with which to fly beyond its origins and to be told and heard across the world.

 As a writer from the Travelling community, one thought in particular that has plagued Jess Smith’s mind is ‘why are we different from the rest of society and where can I find our original story?’ For most of her life, especially while on the road in summertime, she asked the elders, but each had different answers which made her quest all the more confusing. 

Hear Jess Smith reading from Button Bog by following this link to this Tik Tok video.

Time shaped her life, took her off the road, and yet she never stopped looking for those origins. While in search of the elusive wanderers of the past Jess collected volumes of books, documents and wrote down personal stories – her ‘Kist of Voices’: a wonderful wealth of tales, storytellers and poets. 

Like the rhythm and seasons of a flowing river, the stories and characters flow freely with their own depth and reasons through each chapter. 

Stories can bring people together and just as quickly separate them. In them there is sorrow and happiness, life and death. We laugh and cry, we live and die and all the time we scatter the words that tell of a never-ending journey. Simply, nature is all around us and we are the carriers of her wisdom. And in the tides of nature, we are the taletellers, all of us.

Button Bog is available from Tippermuir Books. Order your copy by following this link.

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