One might not expect the director of Channel 4’s Big Brother zombie-drama Dead Set, or the drug–dealing crime series Top Boy, to make his debut feature film with a stark look at the subterfuge and brutality of the Irish Troubles. However, in ’71 Yann Demange proves successful in creating a surprisingly apolitical film, focusing Read More
What exactly is a fairy-tale? Does it have to take place in a different world, or can it relate to the place from which you come? With Gone are the Leaves readers are able to envision an innocently romantic fairy-tale set in the lush landscape of Scotland and France. The simple plot of boy and Read More
Sir Kenneth Calman possesses a wealth of academic degrees, and has occupied several high-ranking positions in medical councils. Included amongst an enviable list of healthcare publications is 2001’s British Medical Journal article “Storytelling, humour and learning in medicine”, and it is with this overlying theme that he has produced A Doctor’s Line. Calman’s prognosis for Read More
“I think about this a lot – the way people who are missing can fill your life. They stand at your window and watch you through the glass, whether you know it or not.” Snake Road, recently short-listed for the prestigious Encore Prize, is a story that will be heard far beyond the borders of Read More
Readers familiar with Bernard MacLaverty’s novels know that he is a deft and sensitive chronicler of his native Ireland – particularly of “The Troubles”, but also of more personal troubles. Collected Stories draws from five published collections, arranged chronologically from Secrets (1977) to the most recent, Matters of Life and Death (2006).In what is arguably Read More
Of late, Tom Pow has been preoccupied with journeys. Astonishingly, he has two full collections out this year, and both have journeys at their heart. In A Wild Adventure Pow traces the life of Thomas Watling, an artist from Dumfries sent to Botany Bay, Australia, convicted of forgery. Atlas of Scotland, with its beautiful cover Read More
Falling Fast is a genuinely engaging and compelling debut novel from Neil Broadfoot, mingling violent crime and investigative journalism in a tightly controlled plot which exudes the best features of Tartan Noir. Its plot follows Doug McGregor, the Capital Tribune‘s lead crime reporter, an intelligent if somewhat cynical writer for whom the bottom of a Read More
Susan Haigh: Sue Peebles, you were born in Arbroath, lived in America for a time and returned to the east coast of Scotland. Your début novel, The Death of Lomond Friel won the Scottish First Book Award and The Saltire First Book award. Tell me something about how you came to write that first book? Read More
Brian Johnstone’s third collection, Dry Stone Work, is prefaced by a quote from Nobel Laureate, Orhan Pamuk: “The stones we writers use are words…” The collection is then divided into four sections, each named for a different aspect of dry stone walling: “Footings”, “Tracings”, “Heartings”, and “Copings”. Across the four sections, concepts of artifice and Read More