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UnReidable Chapter 5 – February 2010: Brooklyn, New York
The slogan ‘I ❤ NY’ is so ubiquitous in New York City that I think everyone just accepts the premise as true. Of course everyone loves New York! When I moved there in December 2005, I was open to the possibility of falling in love with the city, and I had some exciting times there, but […]
Pete Reid
February 5, 2016
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UnReidable Chapter 4 – January 1996: Glasgow, Scotland
The weather in Glasgow is generally miserable, and that can have an effect on people. My Grandma passed away a couple of years ago and she started every letter she wrote to me complaining about the terrible weather. Even after living in Glasgow for 90 years it still bothered her. Scottish winters are inevitably cold […]
Pete Reid
January 29, 2016
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UnReidable Chapter 3 – January 1984: Barrhead, Scotland
Whenever I’m asked where in Scotland I am from, my response is always ‘Barrhead’. I lived there from the age of 7 until I left home at 18. In the same way that bands are always listed as being from a particular city, presumably because their music is influenced by their home, I feel that […]
Pete Reid
January 22, 2016
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UnReidable Chapter 2 – January 2005: Austin, Texas
I was still living in Austin in January 2005 but I was ready to leave. I’d been involved in a few projects that had either failed or not achieved the success I was hoping: namely, my first marriage, managing indie bands, making music videos, and making wedding videos. My day job was working as a […]
Pete Reid
January 15, 2016
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UnReidable Chapter 1 – January 1999: Melbourne, Australia
In the end there is only one place for me to start – in the middle. In January 1999, I was 23 years old and living in a shared house in Parkville on the north side of Melbourne. I’d been there 10 months and had spent most of the time writing a screenplay about what […]
Pete Reid
January 8, 2016
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UnReidable – The Introduction
I don’t read books. I do know how to read and I have read some books. I don’t have anything against reading books as a concept. It’s just that I don’t ever choose to do it. I like to write. I have always enjoyed writing. As a kid I used to write episodes of my favorite TV […]
Pete Reid
January 2, 2016
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Indelible Ink: Denise Mina’s Garnethill
Scottish crime fiction is generally held to be a helpful category to be filed under if you want to sell books. The term ‘Tartan Noir’ is one that many find grating, but it has undoubtedly helped raise the profile of some of Scotland’s finest writers. The downside is that some may prejudge those writers, believing […]
Alistair Braidwood
October 30, 2015
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Indelible Ink: Angus Peter Campbell’s ‘The Girl On The Ferryboat’
Some of Scotland’s greatest writers have been bilingual in English and Gaelic. In the last 100 years there have been glorious examples, from Sorley MacLean, through Iain Crichton Smith and Derick Thomson, to Aonghas MacNeacail, Meg Bateman, Peter MacKay, and many more. Although all are distinctly individual, it does appear there is something in the […]
Alistair Braidwood
September 13, 2015
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Indelible Ink: Jane Alexander’s ‘The Last Treasure Hunt’
There are only a few novels which have dealt well with our age of celebrity, such as Brett Easton Ellis’s ‘Glamorama’, but there are hundreds of terrible novels written by celebrities, (‘A Mother’s Gift’ by Britney Spears, anyone? Thought not) which is a damning comment on current cultural concerns in itself. Luckily, Jane Alexander’s intriguing […]
Alistair Braidwood
July 17, 2015