Anne Lorne Gillies

Photograph of Anne Lorne Gillies - ASC Speaker of the Year 2005

Anne Lorne Gillies is a Scottish singer, songwriter, broadcaster, author and academic. Born in Stirling, she now lives in Ayrshire.

Raised on a croft in Argyll, she began singing in early childhood and won the Mòd Gold Medal when she was only seventeen - the day before she left home to study Celtic and English at Edinburgh University.

In a musical career spanning more than thirty years she has sung throughout the world and made many albums, radio and television series. Unusually she combines classical musical training (in London and Italy) with a deep understanding of Gaelic musical, historical and literary tradition.

A fluent Gaelic speaker, she has been at the heart of the movement to regenerate Scotland’s ancient language and culture – as educationalist, television producer, political activist and, of course, parent.

As a writer she is equally at home in Gaelic and English. She has written scripts and screenplays, short stories and children’s novels, newspaper columns and an award-winning autobiography.