AN AUTHOR has returned home to Kirkby Lonsdale from the sunny Mediterranean for an emotional family reunion.
Bill Macfarlane took a trip down memory lane as he celebrated his 82nd birthday with dozens of family members in Kirkby Lonsdale. Bill has spent the last 28 years writing at his island home in Cyprus, but before moving abroad he was a teacher and outdoor enthusiast at the Lakes School, Windermere, and Lancaster Grammar.
The former Kirkby Lonsdale rugby player described the family reunion as "really quite emotional". He told the Gazette that during the 1950s and '60s there were 24 Macfarlanes living in Kirkby Lonsdale.
The family have published their own special magazine - MacMag - to mark the occasion, with proceeds donated to the Nepal earthquake appeal.
Although Bill has often returned to his birthplace, he said: "It always stirs very great emotions in me because I love Kirkby Lonsdale. Everything is springlike, it's green and all the trees are out. It's heavenly."
Bill's most recent novel, The Gypsy Model - A Romany Curse - was inspired by the love affair between lesser-known Pre-Raphaelite artist Frederick Sandys and his muse Kiomi Gray, the 'femme fatale' model for paintings such as Medea and Morgan Le Fay. Family tree research suggests that Kiomi may have been distantly related to the Macfarlanes by marriage.
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