Congratulations to Elizabeth, Daniel and Ben

This post is going to be a brag about my amazing family. Starting with the youngest.

Elizabeth was recently awarded a Gladys Sangster Award for her singing! This incredible achievement gives her 6 hours of scholarship lessons at the North East of Scotland Music School (NESMS). She’s currently working hard towards her grade 8 classical singing exam and her voice is beautiful. Well done, Elizabeth!

Next up is Daniel who just won the Margaret Stewart Prize for Mathematics at the University of St Andrews. This award goes to the student(s) with the highest grades in first-year maths and comes with a well-deserved £250 prize.

To put this into perspective, The Guardian University guide ranked St Andrews 1st place for mathematics in 2026 (and 2nd place overall, just behind Oxford). The university attracts the brightest minds from around the world so Daniel was up against some tough competition.

And finally, Ben! He is officially a published author. His new maths textbook, titled G-Complete Reducibility, Geometric Invariant Theory and Spherical Buildings, represents decades of collaborative work with two fellow mathematicians (the trio have been publishing papers together since the early 2000s). If you fancy some bedtime reading, it’s available online from Blackwell’s for £50.

I’m going to take a little bit of credit for my multi-talented family. For years and years I’ve been fuelling them with healthy, plant-based meals and it turns out those dark leafy greens and cruciferous veggies DO do wonders for brain development.