Doric Books is a publishin hoose aat his been set up tae preserve an develop e culture an heritage o e Nor-East.

How did Doric Books come into being?

When Aaron Gale (author/illustrator) and Jackie Ross (storyteller) got together their imaginations went wild! They started to dream beautiful dreams. Wouldn't it be great if more stories were told in Doric so people could enjoy reading and hearing their mother tongue more often? What would it be like to have several picture books written in Doric that mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers could read to their children? The more they thought about it the more they wondered 'What's stopping us?'

So Doric Books was born!

Over time, we aim to publish all kinds of Doric material for people of all ages. We want to be part of a world where Scots is fully recognised as a language. A world where Doric, as a dialect of Scots, is valued and enjoyed in homes, schools and communities across the North-East of Scotland and beyond. A world that values local cultural identity and diversity.

This last hope is very important to us. We know that there are different ways of spelling and speaking Doric and several places have their own words for things. So, you might find that our books have different words and spellings for the same English word because this diversity is something we'd like to hold on to.

We want to encourage people to use Doric wherever they can. So, we set Doric Books up as a Community Interest Company (CIC). This means that we exist to benefit the Doric speaking community. We'll do this by publishing books in Doric and by holding Doric workshops and events in schools, care homes and other community settings. We want people to have the chance to use our mother tongue in any setting.