Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
This Edinburgh Live article profiles Midlothian author Colin Burnett, a 35-year-old man from Bonnyrigg who has autism and also lives with dyslexia and dyspraxia, as he prepares to publish his third book while confronting how teachers tried to shut down his future. He says he was “laughed at” and discouraged at school, repeatedly told it would be “too difficult” for him to go to university, and remembers telling an English teacher he wanted to become a writer someday and she laughed in my face. The article does not treat this as a harmless memory: it shows how educators’ ridicule and low expectations can become a barrier that blocks People with Disabilities from education and opportunity.
Colin’s response was not to accept the limits set for him, but to keep going until his work was impossible to dismiss. He studied sociology at Queen Margaret and says he loved it, was proud to get the degree, and proud to “prove them wrong.” Since releasing his first novel in 2021, the article says he has also been nominated for awards and compared to Irvine Welsh, including a nomination for Scots Writer of the Year at the Scots Language Awards for A Working Class State of Mind. He also says what began as posting writing on social media led to traction, comments “from people across the world,” a platform to approach a publisher, and public support from readers—recognition that directly contradicts the way teachers dismissed his ambitions.
The article also highlights what Colin insists mainstream media keeps skipping: working-class life and conflict told in its own language. His novels, written in Scots and blending crime, comedy, and drama, follow Aldo, a charismatic Edinburgh criminal kingpin, and “spotlight” the working-class issues Colin claims are “bypassed” in mainstream media. The story points to the scale of that voice by describing how Aldo has been likened to characters from Trainspotting’s Begbie to Tony Soprano, while still being rooted in local relationships—Bruce the Staffy and best mates Dougie and Craig—showing a working-class world the article says too often gets pushed out of the spotlight.
As book three—Luckily, Aldo’s a Family Man—moves toward release later this year, Colin says he wants other People with Disabilities to write and publish without being boxed in by other people’s assumptions. He says it is difficult enough at times living with disabilities, and he does not want his disabilities to become “a ghostwriter for my life,” because he wants to achieve “off my own merit.” He also says people have contacted him sharing their stories of having autism and how he inspired them to get into writing, and that writing is “very therapeutic,” letting him “channel my energy in a positive way” even though he is “normally very shy.” For Community Builders, the point is clear: stop normalizing environments where teachers laugh at a student’s goals, and build schools and creative spaces where People with Disabilities are taken seriously from the start.
Read the Full Article: Midlothian author 'proud to prove teachers wrong' as he publishes third book
By: Isla Storie
