The Editor

Born in the Scottish Borders and raised during the height of the region's textile boom, Gary Stoker’s earliest rhythms were shaped by the local mills where his parents worked as weavers. That deep, tactile connection to the heritage of the Tweed remained a constant thread, even as his career took him away from home to navigate the worlds of performance, business, and storytelling.

After studying piano, conducting, and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, his journey began under the lights of the English National Opera, sparking an 18-year chapter as a professional operatic and theatrical singer. That inherent understanding of narrative and voice eventually transitioned from the stage to the page, supported by a later degree in English.

Following two decades serving as a business advisor, a vocation that began with the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust, Gary returned to his roots, settling in Kelso. Here, surrounded by the timeless landscape of his childhood and a deep appreciation for the rich, historical world-building found in classical literature, his focus shifted entirely to the written word and the analogue aesthetic.

Alongside curating The Kelso Journal, Gary is the author of the music industry guide Hit The Right Note, the upcoming biographical memoir The Bird Man and the dynamic six book series The Kostova Paradox.

 

Tide Pool Publishing

Operating from tidepoolpublishing.co.uk, Tide Pool Publishing is an independent imprint dedicated to the tactile art of slow reading. It was established to champion physical media in a digital age, focusing on works that demand to be held, folded, and kept.

Tide Pool operates on a simple philosophy: words worth writing are words worth printing. By utilizing premium silk finishes, historic typography, and traditional postal delivery, the publishing house strips away the noise of the modern screen. It offers readers a quiet, deliberate space to engage with local history, observation, and heritage. The Kelso Journal serves as the flagship dispatch of this endeavour, proving that a return to ink and paper is not just a nostalgic choice, but a necessary one.