Supposedly, reference humour is the laziest kind of humour there is. However, that is not always the case if one combines references and humour, as Jenner does in Two for Joy. Use of the former are perhaps the most characteristic trait of his poetry. Indeed, one might easily accuse him of overdoing it. “Titov Dying”, Read More
Maps, DNA and Spam is the latest exhibition by Scotland and London based artists Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead. Both are graduates from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and have been working together since 1993. The work examines how communication networks and the internet are changing the way we see and relate Read More
Ten Days in Jamaica, the title of Ifeona Fulani’s new collection of short stories, hints at a brief sojourn in the Caribbean,suggesting a series of postcard snapshots of various island locales. Fulani’s collection of views and vistas travels much further than the average vacation visit or perfunctory tour guide; instead she offers journeys through and Read More
“How can it possibly work – a book describing a film, more or less shot by shot?” asks Tess Hadley, author of The London Train (2011), in response to Geoff Dyer’s Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room. And indeed it shouldn’t. A thorough account of Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker, Read More
Although Any Other Branch is Ivy Page’s debut collection, her work is already much anthologized and is well-published in numerous respected journals. Additionally, she is the founder and editor of Organs of Vision and Speech Magazine. Perhaps tellingly, her dedication to “my best beloved, Stephen & for my girls …” opens up a highly moving Read More
This anthology, Where Rockets Burn Through, houses some familiar names along with a small host of rising names, all of whom make good strong poems. It has to be said, though, that on the whole the poems are parasitic on sci-fi, rather than symbionts of that genre. Strangely, the collection can even offer Malene Engelund’s Read More
Visual artist and poet Helen Ivory’s fourth collection makes a statement which appears to ink its colours strongly on her arrestingly beautiful cover. Her series of poems “tries to understand how a girl could grow up to be the woman living in Bluebeard’s house.” Arranged chronologically, the significantly longer section, Part One,examines that life prior Read More
Paul Kingsnorth has had an admirable and varied career. He has been a peace observer in Mexico, worked in an orangutan rehabilitation centre in Borneo, been the deputy editor of The Geologist, and has been a journalist at The Independent. Whilst holding these positions, he has also published two non-fiction books and seen his poetry Read More
Stuart Kelly is a literary journalist and critic with a formidable reputation for his innovative thought on literary and cultural matters, not only in Scotland, but throughout Britain. He has judged the Man-Booker Prize, the Granta Best Young Novelists of the Year and is one of the judges for the 2014 Dundee Book Prize. He Read More
The Circle is Dave Eggers’ fifth novel, and charts the story of Mae Holland, an able but unexceptional college graduate, plucked from small town existence by Annie, her (ruthless and exceptional) former roommate. Annie holds a highflying post with ‘The Circle’, a Palo Alto search and social media company well on its way to global Read More