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You Have Been Watching… The Big Man
Since I was a youngster men seemed to be split into two groups, big men and wee men. As everyone is a big man when you’re young this distinction seemed arbitrary, but as you grow up you realise that someone being labelled big man is about more than height or bulk, there was an aura. […]
August 6, 2010
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Indelible Ink : The Wasp Factory
Sometimes a writer comes along who is difficult to categorise, who doesn’t fit easily into any genre. Iain Banks is one such writer. Of course as Iain M. Banks, his other writing title, he is an out and out sci-fi novelist, but even that isn’t as clear cut as it at first appears.
August 2, 2010
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Indelible Ink: Special Edition ‘The Year of Open Doors’
‘Novels are full of padding, they’re clearly objectionable’ Paul Reekie ‘Submission’ The above quote is one of my favourites and comes from the 1996 short story collection ‘Children of Albion Rovers’. It is the way I feel about many novels, and neatly sums up why I have such a love for the short story.
July 30, 2010
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You Have Been Watching… The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
This week’s featured film is a bona fide classic, and, like Muriel Spark’s 1961 novel from which it is adapted, much more subversive and controversial than many would give it credit for. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a film about loyalty, betrayal, guilt, duty, responsibility and questions of nature versus nurture.
July 23, 2010
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You Have Been Watching… Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
This week’s film is the wonderfully titled Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. Set in present day Glasgow this 2002 movie is a real European affair, co-produced as it is by Scotland, France, Denmark and Sweden. This international feel stretches to a wonderfully eclectic cast which includes the always brilliant Shirley Henderson, Mads Mikkelsen (seen recently […]
July 16, 2010
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You Have Been Watching… Strictly Sinatra
For some people, Scottish cinema consists of Trainspotting, Braveheart, Local Hero, Whisky Galore, whatever happens to be a particular favourite and little else. From early Powell and Pressburger and Ealing, through the madness of Brigadoon, the badness of the 1970s and the Forsyth dominated 1980s, to the renaissance of the last 20 years, this new […]
July 9, 2010
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Indelible Ink : Boyracers
There are many ways to start a novel, but surely one of the most arresting of recent times can be found in Alan Bissett’s ‘Boyracers’, which opens: ‘like rebel angels, bright, restless, sensually attuned to the flux and flow of mortal Falkirk, Belinda our chariot, our spirit guide, the wind rushing up and past her […]
July 5, 2010
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In praise of: Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The 39 Steps’…
Recently, in between all the football and 12 hour tennis marathons, I managed to fit in another viewing of Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of John Buchan’s novel The 39 Steps. This story has been adapted many times with differing results, but Hitch’s version is far and away the best. Made in 1935 the film has […]
July 2, 2010
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In praise of: Roddy Frame
Of all Scotland’s New Towns, East Kilbride arguably managed to prove the one that provided the most cultural interest. Cumbernauld had the kudos of being the home of Gregory’s Girl, but that was greatness thrust upon it. East Kilbride, at least for a while, provided art and attitude that was all its own.
June 25, 2010
