Colin Hetherington was always known for his love of sharing stories – and now, thanks to his friends “one last story” has been shared for him.
He would often be found at the corner of the bar at the Old School House, which became fondly known as Colin’s Corner, entertaining his many friends with his tales.
Colin worked at RGU and ran a tech start-up called Neosome with his friend Jo-Anne Tait building virtual worlds for education.
He was also known for his creativity – whether that was through his drawings, paintings, or 3D models.
But, very few people knew he had written a sci-fi book in 1995 and gifted the manuscript to a friend living in Findhorn.
After Colin died following a battle with esophageal cancer in 2021 at the age of 55, Ms Tait heard rumours about the book.
She made it her mission to track it down, hoping to publish the book and share it with his many other friends.
Ms Tait made the drive to Findhorn and took pictures of the original manuscript, including his original front cover art.
A year and a half later, with the help of Stuart Mitchell, This Way Up has been published in Colin’s memory.
Book is ‘full of Colin’s personality’
Last night, friends and family gathered at the Old School House to celebrate the launch of his book – and share their own stories about him.
Ms Tait, 46, said that although it felt “weird” to be back in her friend’s regular pub it was good to see all the people who knew Colin come along to “share in it”.
She said: “Nobody knew about this book, just one person had the manuscript and there was only one copy. So to be able to take it and share one last story from Colin, I think that’s a nice thing to do.
“I was quite cross with Colin when he died,” she admitted. “I was a bit like ‘no we still have things to do, thank you very much’.
“So I felt like working through the book, it’s so full of Colin’s personality, it was quite nice and it helped me out as well.
“I really enjoyed editing it, it felt like I was quite close to him – like I got him back for a little bit longer.”
Colin would have ‘both loved and hated this’
When Colin became unwell in the autumn of 2019, Mr Mitchell joined Neosome to help. After he died in 2021, they couldn’t find anyone to replace his technical expertise and stopped creating virtual worlds.
But now Ms Tait says Colin has once again helped “steer” the direction of the company as they plan to publish more books and audio plays.
Mr Mitchell, who works at Aberdeen Performing Arts and has a background in publishing, said he enjoyed seeing Colin’s friends come together for the book launch.
He described Ms Tait as the “driving force” behind publishing the book and believes that Colin would have “secretly loved” it.
“As soon as Jo found out Colin had written a book she wanted to do it,” the 46-year-old said.
“Colin would have both hated and loved this at the same time. He would have pretended he hated the fuss and didn’t like the fact that people were reading his stuff – but I think he would have secretly loved it.
“The fact it came from Jo would have been even more important.”
‘A great legacy’
Colin’s older brother, David Hetherington has described the book as a “great legacy”.
Mr Hetherington, who stays in Forres where they grew up, said it was his first time back at the Old School House since Colin died. He was pleased to see all of his brother’s friends gathered around sharing their own stories about Colin.
The 61-year-old said: “Well, I was surprised because none of us knew it even existed until he died. It was a real pleasure to know he had done it.
“I’m not a big fan of sci-fi, but Colin was into Terry Pratchett and Red Dwarf and all those programmes. It doesn’t surprise me, but it’s a side of him I never knew really existed.
“Jo has done an amazing job, and it’s a great legacy.”
Copies of the book can be ordered on Amazon.
Conversation