Renfrewshire-born Kathleen Jamie, Scotland’s sole Eliot prize nominee, has long been resident on the Fife shore of the Tay. The Overhaul bears the watermarks of her adopted home. Jamie’s collection begins with “The Beach”, human rubbish seen as man’s contribution to natural beauty, and comes full circle with the span of “bird-bones, rope-scraps” in the Read More
Since Robert Mapplethorpe emerged in the 1970s his work has been regarded as synonymous with controversy. The artist’s explicit critique of societal norms and the unconventional beauty of some of his photographs have augmented this controversial reputation. Having been regarded as a pioneer of artistic explorations of sexuality and gender, we find Mapplethorpe continuously cited Read More
The National Poet of Wales since 2008, Gillian Clarke is a writer, lecturer, translator and champion of the Welsh language; in 2010 she received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. Having published ten collections since 1971, Clarke is a prolific poet and a central figure in Welsh literary life. The snowbound winters of 2009 and Read More
After the fairly tepid responses to his work between Festen (1998) and Submarino (2010, Thomas Vinterberg returns to his thematic roots in The Hunt, once again examining the idea of child abuse in a close-knit social sphere. Ex-teacher Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is working in a nursery whilst negotiating custody of his teenage son Markus (Losse Read More
“Dripping in Gothic tension”, the endorsement by Doug Johnstone on the cover of The Healing of Luther Grove, is an pretty accurate summation of the book. Barry Gornell’s debut novel, funded with the aid of the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Bursary, contains all the elements of a traditional horror. Right from the first sentence, Read More
Given the massively popular and critical success of Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies, it was inevitable perhaps that The Heart Broke In did not win the Costa Award; however, it was a worthy contender, sharing the range of the great and very ambitious Russian family sagas of the 19th and 20th centuries. James Meek Read More
The Havocs is Jacob Polley’s third published collection of poetry. This ensemble of poems displays an eclectic mix of styles and draws inspiration from sources as diverse as Anglo-Saxon poetry and the work of Northern Irish poet Tom Paulin. The collection is unified by the poet’s insightful reflections on universal human concerns such as love, Read More
Havisham, is a book based on the life of Great Expectations’ Miss Catherine Havisham, the mad woman who, after being left at the altar, takes in the orphan Estella and teaches her to break the hearts of men. The book both shows the descent into madness of Dickens’s infamous character, but also explains how she Read More