Colin Mark

Raised in the North-East of Scotland, Colin B.D. Mark was educated at Peterhead Academy, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and thereafter at Aberdeen University where he gained a Master of Arts Degree in 1959. The following year he gained a Teaching Diploma at what was then known as Aberdeen Teacher Training College. During the ensuing thirty-nine years he taught in a number of Primary Schools in various parts of Scotland — all the while pursuing a parallel career in writing.

Outwith his teaching responsibilities, his main interest — particularly over the past twenty years — was, and is, Scottish Gaelic. This interest led to the authorship and publication of a book, now considered a standard, on the subject of Gaelic verbs. Mr. Mark has also written a number of Gaelic short stories which have been published in the highly acclaimed Gaelic Quarterly Gairm.

One enormous endeavour, which has been on-going for most of the past twenty years, has been the compilation of a modern Gaelic-English Dictionary. This dictionary is the most comprehensive Gaelic-English Dictionary compiled since those by Edward Dwelly and Malcolm MacLennan in the first quarter of the 20th century. With 736 pages as well as 12 in-depth appendices, the dictionary contains many words and phrases not to be found in any other Gaelic dictionary. In addition, many of the entries are far more detailed and contain numerous examples of usage.