It is more than understandable that feminists, particularly those with affection for the work of Andrea Dworkin, might have expected to be- at least- a little offended by this performance. How pleasant it is to be proved wrong. Bissett delicately balances reminiscences of his own life, man and boy, with readings from the work of Read More
Bird-Woman Nothing is yet in its true form – C. S. Lewis The bird-woman is in the field in her blue dress, small bird wrapped in a rag of cotton in her hand, legs like twigs, throat between songs The sunlight is squeezing her, squeezing the field-grass until her blue dress is a distant boat Read More
I caught up with James Robertson as he was signing a copy of The Gruffalo for a wee boy who seemed perplexed at the adage ‘Lang may your lum reek.’ Robertson ha d, of course, recently translated Julia Donaldson’s children’s classic into Scots; I had also just witnessed a riotous storytelling session where he not Read More
Four New Words For Love tells the story of Gina, a single mother from Glasgow, who during the course of the novel becomes homeless, and of her meeting with Jonathan, a recent widower from London, who invites her to live with him. The narrative focuses on Gina and Jonathan’s lives before their meeting, and the Read More
This exhibition showcases work from artist Marge Loudon Moody, who graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art (DJCAD) in 1972. She is currently Professor of Fine Arts at Winthrop University, South Carolina, having moved to the United States in 1983. Yet despite its title, the exhibition is not a retrospective in the usual sense, Read More
Outside In: Scotland is a two-part exhibition created on the initiative of the Outside In project, an alternative arts agency started in 2006 by Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. The project focuses on offering a platform for the representation of self-taught artists outside of the typical institutional context, whether due to disability, mental health issues or Read More
The face on the poster tells a story without a word being spoken: a woman’s face etched with grief, defiance in the downturn of the mouth.Theatre-goers are left in no doubt that the Dundee Rep Ensemble’s performance of Euripides’ anti-war tragedy Hecuba is going to be bleak and uncompromising; a narrative with no quarter given. Read More
The tenth novel by Glaswegian crime writer Denise Mina, and the third to involve DS Alex Morrow. Gods and Beasts delivers a tale of moral corruption, murder and complicity which explores the connections between the worlds of politics, the police force and the criminal underworld. This novel is one overtly concerned with the institutional mesh Read More
As a university lecturer whose research and teaching examine the philosophical relevance of religion, I have been struck by the way in which critical discussion often reduces religious discourse to issues of psychology, science or morality. To interpret the relevance of religious scripture through these disciplines is tantamount to saying that religion is merely a Read More
Night Boat, Alan Spence’s sixth novel, is a fictional “autobiography” of the life and teachings of Hakuin, an 18th-century Japanese Zen Buddhist master. It opens with Hakuin as a young boy, listening to a sermon about the Eight Burning Hells: The hells, the monk explained, descended in order of severity, down and down, ever deeper Read More