If you like post-apocalyptic novels, then this is the book for you. If you like them very gory and brutal, then this is not the book for you. Even the deaths are gentle. Russell himself said that, although he had a ‘‘fascination with Armageddon,’’ he ‘’wanted to devise one…based on human technology rather than something Read More
Should you wish to be transported into a fairytale world of Nordic myth then Transparencies by Meg Bateman may be just your thing. There are moments when one receives an antidote, often in an art form, which clears your mental fog. In this case it comes in the guise of poetry. Meg Bateman has a Read More
In the fairly recent publication, Hallaig and Other Poems, two of Sorley Maclean’s most devoted acolytes, Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul (Angus Peter Campbell) and Aonghas MacNeacail – both respected poets in their own right – have selected over seventy of what I assume are their personal favourites from the renowned, late Raasay poet’s work. Drawn mainly Read More
Twenty years after his last novel A Nice and Steady Job, Gregory Dowling returns to fiction writing with Ascension: a love letter to the City of Venice. Ascension follows Alvise Marangon, a young tour guide, as he offers to escort two English tourists in Eighteenth Century Venice and is then quickly embroiled in murder, conspiracies, Read More
“The longing for home and the longing for love are so alike as to be inseparable.” Malachy Tallack, journalist, musician, song-writer, is one of a new generation of travel writers for whom a journey is as much an opportunity for philosophical musings as a geographical experience. Like many of us, myself included, who spend much Read More
Rosemary Goring’s sequel to her debut novel After Flodden is set ten years later in 1523, but begins with a brief prologue immediately following the battle in 1513 which sets the scene for Dacre’s War and connects the main protagonist, Lord Thomas Dacre, to both storylines. Set in the border country which continues to be Read More
Having already published two acclaimed chapbooks, Michael Pedersen offers a remarkable first full-length collection. From the start, it is clear that these pieces are to be performed, not merely read. Each is written in free verse, often without stanzaic limitations, and Pedersen also makes extensive use of internal rhyme and alliteration. Consider the alliterative and Read More
Over the last couple of decades, Scottish crime novels have become immensely popular and increasingly in demand. The genre is going strong thanks to pioneering authors such as Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, and now Denzil Meyrick wishes to join that list. This latest novel in a series by Meyrick, The Last Witness is a Read More