Fiddler on the Make

by Peter Kerr

When the sleepy Scottish village of Cuddyford is colonised by well-heeled retirees and big-city commuters, Jigger McCloud, a Jack-the-lad local farmer with a talent for playing the fiddle and an eye for the ladies, isn’t slow to make a quick buck at their expense. Life seems rosy for Jigger and his oddball-but-loveable family, until he tries to scam a mysterious foreign millionaire, who arrives on the scene with plans to develop the area in ways that appeal neither to Jigger nor his milch cow incomers. The folk of Cuddyford, native and otherwise, promptly close ranks. Comic shenanigans, quirky characters and sinister ploys abound, and it’s Bert, Jigger’s scruffy little hamburg-craving dog, who turns out to be the hero of the piece as the McClouds and their beloved Cuddyford teeter on the brink of disaster.

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 17, 2007

About the author

Peter Kerr, the award-winning Scottish author of the 'Snowball Oranges' pentad of humorous Mallorcan travelogues, is a former jazz musician, record producer and farmer. He has also written a range of fiction titles, including the 'Bob Burns Investigates' trilogy of humour-spiked mysteries and 'Song of the Eight Winds', a historical novel set in 13th century Spain. 'Thistle Soup' is a set-in-Scotland prequel to 'Snowball Oranges', while 'Don't Call Me Clyde!' is a memoir of his life as a young jazz musician in early-60s London. A comedy-laced caper called 'The Other Monarch of the Glen' is set in the Scottish Highlands and was published in December 2017, while 'Goblin Hall', a humour-peppered fantasy adventure for a family readership, was published in April 2020. July 2021 saw the release of 'Jen - A Border Collie's Tale', the heart-warming life story of an old farm dog, narrated by Jen herself. 'Author - Don't Make Me Laugh', an amusing though frank and revealing account of the long road to becoming a published author at sixty, was published in November 2024. Peter, an accomplished artist, also illustrates his own books. His reputation as an entertaining and amusing speaker has resulted in regular appearances at book festivals and similar literary events throughout the UK and abroad.