It’s a kind of magic …

Alumni Relations

Tuesday 29 April 2025

Sue Hill (MA 1982) has written over 120 Alumni Stories, co-edited ten issues of Chronicle, and produced countless Development publications to support fundraising campaigns in a decade as Publications Officer at the University of St Andrews. As she prepares to put down her pen – for Development at least – Sue reflects on the town, the friendships, and the institution that will always have a place in her heart.

It’s almost as if when you graduate there’s a magical fragment that slips into your heart (like the Snow Queen but in a GOOD way). Maybe it’s when you’re capped, or when the hood goes over your head. No matter what it is or when it happens – from that point on your heart will be pulled inexorably back to St Andrews like an iron filing to a magnet. It’s useless to resist.

I came to St Andrews largely because of my inspirational Sixth Year Studies poetry teacher who told me about the quaint, seaside University town he had studied at. I learned so much during my four years here. Not just about Medieval History, but about how music and art can feed the soul, and about sticking at things when they become difficult, developing resilience and knowing that ultimately everything is going to be alright. I learned about the overwhelming nature of first love and first failure and how to cope with both. I learned that there are special, same-wavelength friendships that are beyond the price of rubies.

Lessons for life

I took this learning with me when I graduated, and it helped me to pick myself up and start again when I crashed and burned in one of my first primary teaching practice assessments. It helped me to set up a team of designers, editors and proofreaders from scratch when I was Head of Publishing at Learning and Teaching Scotland and was responsible for producing all the 5-14 Exemplification materials for primary and secondary schools in Scotland. (That was quite hairy at times …) It also helped me to parent Emma and Katie – my two gloriously curious, vivacious, heart-and-a-half girls.

And I kept returning – with friends, family, children and sometimes on my own, just to sit in the Cathedral quad in the sun, to feel the history seep into my bones and to review where I had got to at that point on the potholed road that is life.

Even now that I live here, driving into St Andrews with its crow-step gables, turrets and the ruined cathedral facade (that somehow always reminds me of Batman) feels almost Brigadoon-like, no matter how many times I do it. St Andrews casts a spell over you. When you leave you feel that you are returning to the big, bad world. 

A decade in Development

So, it’s no surprise, then, that my ten years working for Development have been among the happiest of my personal and professional life.

By the beginning of 2015 I was looking for a permanent job that would give me financial security and independence: I had previously been a freelance writer and editor for 11 years but that had become increasingly precarious after the financial crisis of 2008. I remember spotting the post of Development Officer, Publications on the Indeed job website and thinking that it had been written for me. ‘Twas meant to be! 

At around the same time I met my other half Callum and his lovely boys Jamie and Jonny. In one of those stranger-than-fiction twists of fate Callum and I struck up a conversation one Wednesday evening in March at a St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra (StAFCO) rehearsal. We discovered that not only had we both been at St Andrews between 1978 and 1982 but that we had also both been members of the University Symphony Orchestra. I have a vague memory of him being a gifted percussion player while I scraped away at the back of the second violins. Fast forward 40-odd years and he is still a gifted percussion (and any other instrument you can name) player while I continue to scrape away in the seconds. It could only happen in St Andrews …

During these past ten years my girls have grown up, flown the nest and become gorgeous, independent women with fire in their bellies and strong opinions that they’re not afraid to voice. I think I’ve transferred some of the magical St Andrews fragment to them through my DNA because they love coming back here.

To the third age!

As far as my professional life is concerned, I have enjoyed every minute of my role as Publications Officer. People are what make Development – and what lovely people they are. It’s always been such a supportive environment to work in and I almost can’t believe that I’ve been lucky enough to be paid to write for and about a place that I have always adored. It’s been an honour and a privilege to have been part of the Campaigns that are helping to shape the University’s future.

However, as far as work is concerned everyone has a best before date: mine is now. There are just so many things I want to do and people I want to see before I shuffle off my mortal coil.

The third age in St Andrews? Roll up for the magical mystery tour!