THERE’S far more to Kirsty Wark than Newsnight; she’s also a mother, a baker, and now, a writer.

If the presenter had a pound for every long commute she’s made from Scotland to London and back during her broadcasting career, she’d be considerably richer.

The mother-of-two who still lives in her home town of Glasgow, makes the 900-mile train commute every week, sometimes staying in London or often returning to her Victorian mansion on the sleeper.

Wark, 59, is an extremely versatile journalist, one of a rare breed who can interrogate a government minister, then move on to an in-depth analysis of a new novel, play or film.

Now, she has turned her hand to fiction in her debut novel The Legacy Of Elizabeth Pringle, inspired by her love of the Scottish island of Arran, where it is set.

The novel is a gentle read in which the eponymous character, Elizabeth Pringle, leaves her house on Arran to a woman who is all but a stranger. It falls to the beneficiary’s daughter, Martha, to find out how her mother inherited the house.

From here, we follow two stories – the life of Elizabeth Pringle, born just before the First World War, told in the first person, and the quest by Martha in the present day to find out how her mother inherited the house.

The two stories are weaved separately and bring home the cruel consequences of the Great War, as well as the secrets that hold the women together.

Wark is married to producer Alan Clements, whom she met while working at BBC Scotland, and they have two children, Caitlin and James, both in their 20s. Like Elizabeth in her book, she will not leave her roots.

She’s currently writing her next novel, set in Scotland and New York, which again has family relationships at its heart.

She says she’s still hugely ambitious, although she questions how that is perceived.

“Ambition is often seen as a great thing in men and a bad thing in women. I want to continue to do good work in television and radio and I really want to write another book,” she says.

“Let’s hope I don’t have to give up one for the other.”