Curious Edinburgh

Michael T R B Turnbull is a retired teacher and further education lecturer in Communication and in Tourism who graduated with an MA at the University of Cambridge, before studying Drawing and Painting for 4 years at the Edinburgh College of Art (now part of Edinburgh University). In 2005 he gained a PhD in Ecclesiastical History from the University of Edinburgh and also held visiting fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study of the Humanities (2009) and from New College (2009-10), both at the University of Edinburgh. He has twice been awarded a Scottish Arts Council Writer’s bursary (1993, 1997) and a Glenfiddich Living Scotland Award (1986, 1991), as well as a Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship (1993). He is listed on the Scottish Book Trust’s Writers’ Register and has worked as a presenter, interviewer and actor for BBC Radio Scotland. He is the author of numerous articles and 20 books — including the operatic biographies Joseph Hislop: Gran Tenore (Scolar Press, 1992) and Mary Garden (Scolar Press, 1997).