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Scotland at SXSW 2013 – The Final List
So here we go. South by Southwest 2013 kicked off today in my adopted home town of Austin, Texas. Scotland will be well represented over the next 10 days or so with around 12 Scottish companies here for the Interactive festival, at least 1 really cool film, and 12 great bands. I’ve tried to list […]
Pete Reid
March 8, 2013
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Indelible Ink: Tom Morton’s ‘Red Guitars In Heaven’
Music and religion. Add in football and you’ve probably got the top three divisive topics in Scotland, even with the Yes/No vote on Independence approaching. In 1994 journalist and broadcaster Tom Morton wrote ‘Red Guitars In Heaven’ a novel which deals with the conflicting nature that a love of pop/rock music and a life devoted […]
Alistair Braidwood
March 5, 2013
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Indelible Ink: Frederic Lindsay’s ‘Brond’
Scottish writers have had an obsession with the nature of evil since they first placed quill to parchment. ‘Good’ is all very well, but the devil has all the best tunes, and the most charismatic representatives. Much of this interest is a result of culturally deep rooted religious belief clashing with a more folk tradition, […]
Alistair Braidwood
February 5, 2013
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Indelible Ink: Jackie Kay’s ‘Trumpet’
There have been a few novels featured in these columns by writers who are as well known, and sometimes better known, as poets. These include Ron Butlin, Kevin MacNeil, John Burnside, James Robertson, Alan Spence, and this month, Jackie Kay. Re-reading her debut novel ‘Trumpet’ I found myself asking if there are any conclusions that […]
Alistair Braidwood
January 7, 2013
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Indelible Ink: Jeff Torrington’s ‘Swing Hammer Swing!’
This month has seen two of Scotland’s greatest living writers in the news. Alasdair Gray has had his short fiction collected into one impressive volume, while James Kelman won the Saltire Book of the Year award for ‘Mo said she was quirky’, and in time honoured fashion managed to make the newspapers by forecfully restating […]
Alistair Braidwood
December 10, 2012
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Americans for an Independent Scotland – and why I am one of them
In less than two years, the people of Scotland will vote to decide if their nation should become an independent country. Today, on St. Andrew’s Day, I’m going to explain why I am supporting the Yes campaign. I am a Scot who now lives in Austin, Texas. I was born and raised in Glasgow, I […]
Pete Reid
November 30, 2012
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Indelible Ink: William McIlvanney’s ‘Weekend’
With the recent success at home and abroad of Scottish writers such as Irvine Welsh, Iain Banks, Ali Smith, Ian Rankin, A.L Kennedy etc, it’s perhaps odd to think of a time when having Scottish novels post R.L. Stevenson in a Scottish house was the exception rather than the norm, at least with most of […]
Alistair Braidwood
November 6, 2012
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Indelible Ink: Nina de la Mer’s ‘4a.m.’
In previous columns, mention has been made of the Chemical Generation of writers, whose members included Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Gordon Legge, Laura Hird and Paul Reekie among others. They were a group who appeared in the mid 90s and who were collectively thought of as writers who reflected the thoughts, hopes and dreams (and […]
Alistair Braidwood
October 1, 2012
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Indelible Ink: Ajay Close’s ‘Forspoken’
One of the best things about writing this column is that it has given me the excuse to revisit books from my past, and it’s always interesting to see how they’ve aged. In the late 90s I picked up a copy of Ajay Close’s ‘Forspoken’ for the simple reason that she was one of the […]
Alistair Braidwood
September 3, 2012
