Getting to Know You: Angus MacDonald

What’s your earliest memory?  

My father had a pub in Clachaig in Glencoe, and my earliest memory would have been going around and selling bits of chocolate on Easter Sunday. That was my first entrepreneurial endeavour and it’s the first thing I can consciously remember. I would have been about five. The pub was called the Clachaig Inn. It’s still very successful today. 

What were you like at school? 

I didn’t have a good school career. I left at 16 and that was the end of my education. I can’t put my finger on why I didn’t get on well at school because since then I have employed thousands of people, including PhDs and MBAs – I’m not as thick as I thought I was in those days, but academia and I didn’t go well. I guess I was just born to be a business guy and just wanted to get on with it.  

I wasn’t the most popular person, but I wasn’t unhappy either, it was just one of those things you need to get through.  

Was it your decision to leave school or did someone else suggest it? 

Funnily enough, I left to pursue a girl. She was Uruguayan and she was doing, what we called in those days, a keyboard course in Edinburgh. It was a one-year exchange programme over here, so when she left, I thought, ‘I’m going to go after her’. So I left to go to Uruguay and when I arrived, luckily for her, her family saw me off and so that was the end of my love affair. 

But I decided to stay in South America for a year after that, and funnily enough that was my first proper entrepreneurial venture. I basically rented a bus in Cusco on the way up to Machu Picchu in Peru and I would pick up American tourists who would pay me $50, I would pay the driver, and make some really decent money. When I came back on the Queen Elizabeth II, I had a down payment for a flat.  

Who would be your dream dinner party guests? 

Warren Buffett, the greatest investor the world has ever known, I would love to meet him. He’s quirky, interesting, and a musician. Billy Connelly as well. He’s a great laugh and who wouldn’t want to hang out with him for a bit? Any of the guys from The Proclaimers, I love their music and they’re fun to be with. And finally, someone like Gary Innes, a local lad from Lochaber who is a musician. He just constantly impresses me, whether it’s his musical ability on the radio or his shinty skills.  

What’s your greatest fear? 

I think probably being found out. I think my incompetence would become clear to everyone and not just my wife. I have had several different careers, and I have managed to get by.  

How do you make sure you’re not found out? 

I try to work harder than everyone else, get there before everyone else, leave later, and if I’m stuck for an answer I blame the fact that I’m deaf and that gives me a few more minutes to figure out what on earth they are talking about.  

What’s your most treasured possession? 

My wife, Michie, definitely. We have been very happily married for 37 years. And a special mention for my dog as well who lives with us in Arisaig. 

What’s your guiltiest pleasure? 

Ice cream. I eat it every day of the year, no matter how cold it is outside.  

If you could go back in time, where would you go? 

I was a junior officer in the army and we did a training course for two weeks in Norfolk. We were given groups of 14, what was known in those days, borstal kids [children from a youth detention centre run by HM Prison Service intended to reform young offenders]. They were with us for two weeks and it was everything from assault courses to map reading to rifle shooting. I just loved it. My 14 kids won every single competition and there was just such a great mood.  

I often think that was the thing I have done best in my life, inspiring those kids and making them feel great about themselves. I still think if I met them in the street today, they would come and give me a hug. I was very young, probably only 18, they were between 14 and 15.
I think it’s a really great example of how you can turn people who are in a very difficult place in their lives. What a great job the army did for me.  

It’s fair to say my father pushed me into joining after I returned from South America because he couldn’t see where I was going in life, and neither could I. It’s where I grew up and took some responsibility.   

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever had? 

Probably to build your own business. It’s not great being a slave to a wage. Having your own business means you can choose your colleagues, you direct how your business does, and if you’ve got a problem you have to fix it.   

What’s the worst pain you’ve ever experienced? 

The mental health and suicide of a family member. It happens to an awful lot of people.  

What’s your top film or TV programme of all time? 

The Sting or The Angel’s Share. It’s between those two. I own a famous cinema and bookshop in Fort William. It’s called the Highland Cinema and has been voted best in Britain; the bookshop is called the Highland Bookshop.  

What was your best holiday ever? 

I have four boys and I took them horseback riding across Patagonia two years ago. We rode through the Andes. That really was the holiday of a lifetime. 

It was a remarkable two weeks; we had three or four guides and they had pack horses. We stayed in the most remote parts you could imagine, many miles from the nearest road.   

I had sold my business and really it was the last chance probably to have a big family holiday before my children got too old. 

Of course that was just before my political life, so just as well I did it then.  

What is the best book you have read? 

It’s No Great Mischief by Alistair McLeod. He’s a man from Cape Breton Island and he was an English teacher and, being a novelist, I think his book probably inspired me more than anything else to write that genre – but to a much less high quality. I have written four books called the Ardnish series.