James Merryweather

James Merryweather is half biologist (ecology, York) and half musician (early music, The York Waits), retired. His most recent book is the WildGuide 'Britain’s Ferns', awarded the Botanical Society’s 2021 President’s Prize. He lives in the Scottish West Highlands where Free Church Christianity, as fundamentalistic as the USA’s Southern Baptists, occupies a significant role in the population’s salvation as well as proscribing the most innocent of weekend activities, such as laundry, sport, Hogmanay, and Tesco. There, evolution is a lie, by divine assent contradicted with shameless false witness by the clergy. Highlands & Islands churches provide plenty to inspire and entertain an atheist author. In the days of print this one provided the Freethinker with ten articles and letters. He’s proud to return in 2025.