Birlinn is delighted to announce that Sheila Stewart has been nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award in the British Awards for Storytelling Excellence 2012!
If you’re not familiar with Sheila’s work, you’re in for a rare treat. Sheila is probably the last link with the traditional traveller ballads and stories, as the daughter of noted singer Belle Stewart and one of The Stewarts o’ Blair who took the folk music world by storm in the 1960s.
Born in a stable to a traditional traveller family, she would overcome the problems and prejudice of life on the road to travel the world singing, telling stories and talking about the traditional ways which were dying out. She has sung for a President, a Pope and a Queen and was awarded an MBE in 2006 for services to the oral tradition of Scotland's folk music and for travelling people. Sheila has written three books, Queen Amang the Heather: The Life of Belle Stewart about her mother Belle, Pilgrims of the Mist: The Stories of Scotland’s Travelling People and A Traveller’s Life: The Autobiography of Sheila Stewart. After sixty years of performing, Sheila retired earlier this year.
Congratulations to Sheila from everyone at Birlinn, and if you’d like to find out more about the award and vote go to www.storyawards.org.uk
