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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Vic has more on The Unwinding Hours this month who are currently blazing a trail through Europe. Tonight they’re in Switzerland, tomorrow they will be in Metz and they have just announced a last minute show in London on Friday. Full details of all Scottish gigs abroad on the Scotland on Tour page.

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 […]

Vic returns with his recommendation for the Scottish international gig of the month and it’s a cracker. Next Friday night Admiral Fallow will support Franz Ferdinand at the Winterthurer Musikfestwochen in Switzerland. Other Scottish bands on tour outside the UK right now include Django Django, Mogwai and Rod Stewart. 

Recently there has been hot debate about the nature of the Booker Prize and if it has institutionalised class and national prejudice at its heart. I understand why writers view these things as important, but as James Kelman said in his speech following his win in 1994 for ‘How Late it Was, How Late’, he […]

Integrity is defined in the dictionary as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” There’s no dictionary definition for “sporting integrity,” though there’s been no end of talk about it recently in Scottish football. I thought I’d have a go at clarifying it for you in case you – like me – […]

As with love, defining what makes something cult is difficult, but you know it when you encounter it. In the late 1980s Scottish writing had been reinvigorated by Iain Banks, James Kelman and Alasdair Gray, amongst others, all of whom are great writers, but who are too high profile to be ‘cult’, and anyway, whether […]