SONGWRITER Edwyn Collins has insisted he wants to be judged only on his music.

Collins, 55, suffered two massive brain haemorrhages in 2005, which left him unable to walk or talk and doctors were unsure he would ever recover from a series of brain operations.

The former Orange Juice frontman has penned three albums during his remarkable recovery.

Now, 10 years after he was first admitted to hospital, he insisted: "I don't want the sympathy vote. Judge me on my music."

Speaking at the Edinburgh Book Festival, he revealed he has written 10 songs in the past two months alone since he and Grace Maxwell, his wife and manager, moved from London to Helmsdale in Sutherland.

He said: "I want people to judge me on my music, I don't want anybody's sympathy vote.

"You can make your own destiny. I had a plan and there was no nostalgia - forget Orange Juice, the future is important to me. I wanted to make new albums to please myself and to keep moving on.

"I'm still making progress. I've done three albums so far following my illness, and I'm still writing.

"I'm stubborn. I don't talk about my illness - I talk about my recovery. I'm very lucky. My language is better now and it will be better again tomorrow. My voice is better. It's powerful again."

Two months ago, Collins moved to Helmsdale, where he spent childhood holidays and where his grandfather was born.

He said: "I'm writing fast again. Helmsdale has been good for me.

"I've written 10 songs in the last two months, but I don't think they're good enough - I've rejected them.

"I can do better. The chorus is easier but the verse - what can I say about life as my subject - is not easier.

"My music hasn't changed although the lyrics have."

Collins was a leading figure on the alternative Scottish music scene in the late 1970s and 1980s, forming his first band, Nu-Sonics, aged 17.

The band became Orange Juice and they enjoyed chart success with Rip It Up in 1983.