'It's nothing I'd have ever expected in life'

OUTLANDER author Diana Gabaldon has told how she could “never in a million years” have imagined the impact of her books on Scotland.

- BY GEORGE MAIR

Gabaldon, 73, wrote her first Outlander novel, right, in 1988 after being inspired by “a man in a kilt” in an old episode of BBC science fiction TV series Doctor Who.

Her books have gone on to sell more than 50 million copies around the world and inspire the hit TV series filmed in Scotland and starring Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe, inset below.

At the launch of a new book, Outlander and Scotland: Touchstones and Signposts, she became emotional after she was asked about the positive impact her books have made on Scotland.

The “Outlander Effect”, she heard, had seen visitors from across the world flock here, and also sparked a growth in interest in Gaelic language and culture.

Gabaldon, right, said: “I would have never in a million years imagined that this would all happen. I wrote Outlander for practice, I was never going to show it to anyone.

“Being an academic, I wanted to do the best research I could — I wasn’t going to write about anything that I didn’t know about, so I said I want to learn how to write a book and once I think I know how to write a book Ill write a real book, which I might try to publish.