​Some of the best things are free, to be sure, but others need a little help. For me, there's something wonderful about consuming nice food and drinking good coffee in a location (this is the free bit) which is simply wonderful. Even the location isn't truly free, of course, as most of the time it still costs a little to get there.

So there's something special about a flask of coffee and a chocolate digestive biscuit – preferably a good quality plain chocolate one, I think – on a cold winter's day. This is January, so there are plenty of cold winter's days around, and they're free, too.

But today Katherine and I lashed out a little. There's a little café called Zanzibar in North Berwick which sells simply wonderful toasted paninis or, if you prefer, lovely tarts and cakes; it also happens to sell quite the best coffee in East Lothian. Put it together with fabulous scenery and you can't lose.

And that's what we did today. I had a small prima latte to go with an extra shot together with a chicken and ham panini. Then we took our lunch along to the picnic tables at the east end of the beach at North Berwick – under the Glen Golf Club – and sat and watched the busy turnstones and manic oystercatchers doing their thing so close to us that we didn't need our binoculars to see what they were up to.

Many good things in life might be free, but for a small amount extra – less than £10.00 in this case for the two of us – the combination of the best mankind can offer and the best of nature can be truly sublime.

Gordon Lawrie

Some first-time moments remain in the memory for a lifetime: the first drink, the first cigarette, the loss of virginity, the first time behind the wheel of a car, the first day in a new university or job. It’s not that the events themselves are uncommon, but rather that they happen once, just once, for each particular individual.
 
When in addition the event happens to mark the end product of a huge amount of work and is itself a huge achievement, then we’ve every right to expect a little trumpet fanfare for that individual.
 
It’s only a little over a year since a chance conversation on social media brought Jane Tulloch’s half-written novel Our Best Attention and Comely Bank Publishing together. Nevertheless, Jane’s first novel is published today and goes on sale in good bookstores and as an ebook. By no means has it been a smooth ride – first novels never are – but here we are all the same and this is a moment Jane should enjoy and remember for ever. She’ll enjoy Thursday’s official signing launch in Edinburgh Blackwell’s even more. The first book is always special, and unique.
 
Of course Jane will be the first to acknowledge that she’s had the help of an awful lot of other people who’ve helped her with editing her work, proof-reading, designing covers, arranging publicity, distribution. But today is her special day in the sun, and I for one would like to offer my warmest congratulations.
 
Gordon Lawrie
Founder and Managing Director,
Comely Bank Publishing