Published: Thursday, 2nd October, 2008 11:00am

MSP honours Lochgelly author

by Peter Swindon

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Local MSP Helen Eadie hosted a reception in honour of Reverend Jon Magee at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday.

The Lochgelly-based baptist minister became a published author recently after penning a book about his teenage years living under the constant threat of terrorism in the middle east.

Reverend Magee lived in the port city of Aden, now part of Yemen, in 1966 and 1967 after his father, a serving member of the British Royal Air Force at the time, was posted there.

Entitled "From Barren Rocks To Living Stones" the book is a concise and incident-packed memoir, conversational in style, which offers his perspective of life in the trouble-hit colony during the 1960s.

Mrs Eadie said: "It has been a privilege to work with Reverend Magee on a variety of community issues as we have served the people of Lochgelly and Fife in our different ways over the years.

"Reverend Magee's community involvement has touched people of all ages, many without direct church connection.

'This was an opportunity to acknowledge with thanks the work Reverend Magee has undertaken within my constituency and the larger Fife community, with a chance also to discuss his most recent turn as an author of his first book.

'Rev. Magee continues to serve as an inspiration to the local community and I was happy to be able to highlight his work and accomplishments with a reception."

Mr Magee said: 'I feel very honoured to have been invited. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed it, including my 92-year-old mum, who was very excited by it all. But it"s important to point out that this couldn"t have happened without the partnership of the church and the wider community.'