For first time in his career Craigie's keeping schtum

For a couple of decades or more he has been the acknowledged doyen of Edinburgh's after-dinner speakers.

Now, it seems, he is about to clam up, when we thought we would never be able to stop him talking. But he is 82 and at the time-to-call-it-a-day stage. Time to retire from the speakers' circuit.

Craigie's way with words has earned him a living and taken him round the world to "places I'd never have seen ordinarily and thanks a lot to my mother".

He left school at 14.

"Darroch Junior School, but I've always told audiences I was educated at Darroch Academy, sounds better.

"It was a rough and ready establishment, we got a half day on Crippen's birthday," he says.

His mum well realised he wouldn't fit into the apprenticeships of the day as a joiner, plumber or electrician.

"I was, and still am, handless. If I had to stick a drawing pin in the wall to take a calendar, the plaster would fracture. But, God bless her, she'd spotted a small ad in the Evening News saying 'Smart boy wanted'. She took me by the hand, literally, and got me the job, in Market Street bundling the papers hot off the presses and into the delivery vans.

"It proved to be a job for life in newspapers."

The smart boy was promoted to the News' communications wire room where he aspired to journalism on the sports desk. From there it was on to ultimately sports editor, and "public" speaking. He recalls: "We sponsored trophies for local football teams and my bosses sent me to various events to present them and say a few words. It all stemmed from there.

"We must be talking 25 years ago or more.

"My 'gift', as you call it, has taken me round the world, invited to chat to a variety of audiences, often expats, often at Burns' Suppers, largely around the Middle East, twice to Jakarta, of all places, Hong Kong and Singapore."

Craigie, who lives close to the Forth and perhaps too close to his neighbour, comedian Happy Howden, has been married 55 years to Christian. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.

He and his wife met in the Evening News office.

"Christian was the editor Bill Barnetson's secretary and she retired from that post once we'd married."

Craigie's neutrality has been patently clear. As long as listeners understood that he is a Jambo.

He wouldn't let me go without a word in my ear. "John, don't forget to mention that I was Scottish Scrabble Champion."

Done. I'll mention, too, that it takes a whole lot of nerve to get on your feet and command the attention of a sea of faces for half an hour or more.

Try it some time.