Glasgow author says Virgin Mary guided his pen in debut novel.

Jun 4 2012 By Joe McGuire

A NEW book about the Virgin Mary enjoyed divine help, according to the author.

Glasgow-born writer Dick Barton, 63, admits the Holy Mother was the last thing he would’ve chosen to write about, and doesn’t describe himself as being religious.

He said: “I never wrote it on PC, it was all by hand and I felt my pen being guided by something else.

“It was a very weird feeling.

“Really, I felt like I was just a channel for the Virgin Mary to write through.

“Sometimes it would bring tears to my eyes as I wrote, bring me to my knees – this was the strength of feeling I had.”

But the Dennistoun-born businessman, who founded salon chain Das Haar, says he was also subject to more malign forces while writing.

Barton said: “I could feel an evil force trying to stop me from writing. It was a real fight some days and I could feel a war being played out through my pen.”

The book is a personal triumph for Dick, who left high school with no qualifications at 15.

He said: “I barely knew about punctuation and grammar so this book is a bit of an achievement for me.”

Growing up in the east end, he felt the religious divide keenly.

He said: “I couldn’t get a job because I was a Catholic.

“All this sectarian hate between Celtic and Rangers is disgusting, no better than racism.”

In Madonna and the Pen, Mary appoints a dozen young disciples, from all faiths, to carry her word across the globe.

They act to combat the seven deadly sins on a material level, but also fight a supernatural battle against demons.

It’s a scenario that Barton sees as being likely thanks to the state of the planet today.

He said: “You just need to look around and see all the corruption, war, famine and injustice to know we’re in a bad state.

“I wanted to bring the Virgin Mary back into the world through my writing, and I think that’s what her plan is.”

Barton hopes the book might be turned into a movie, and is already writing a sequel.

Madonna and the Pen, published by Austen amd Macauley, is sold in paperback for £9.99 from Amazon.