Lancashire-born Ann Yates enjoyed many holidays in the Kintyre area over the years, so much so that she and her husband Steve moved there on a permanent basis. Ann has been writing poetry since the 1970s and, enchanted by Argyll's creative world of mountanous coastal beauty, her style is of a non-contemporary manner for easy reading. A former winner of the Ottaker and Faber poetry competition, Ann was, in 2005, awarded the Elizabeth Webster prize for original and interesting use of language. In the same year her poem The Gift was highly commended by the Writers Forum magazine.