- 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 […]
- Indelible Ink: Laura Hird’s ‘Born Free’ We have referenced the Chemical Generation of writers a few times on Indelible Ink, and featured the best of their work with Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’, Alan Warner’s ‘Morvern Callar’, Duncan McLean’s ‘The Bunker Man’ and Gordon Legge’s ‘The Shoe’. This month we feature the fifth entry into what I consider the Top Five Chemical Generation […]
- Indelible Ink: Chris Dolan’s ‘Redlegs’ Last year’s Commonwealth Games prompted a lot of discussion and debate about Scotland’s place in the Commonwealth, the creation of the British Empire, and, in turn, its role in the slave trade. Thanks to events such as The Empire Café and the ‘How Glasgow Flourished’ exhibition at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove many people learned a lot more […]
- Indelible Ink: Kei Miller’s ‘The Last Warner Woman’ The best novels are not simply great stories; the magic comes in the telling. Kei Miller’s 2010 novel ‘The Last Warner Woman’ is as much about storytelling as it is about the characters themselves. Miller plays with the reader’s perception of how a novel should be structured and examines how the same story must be […]
- Indelible Ink: Iain Maloney’s ‘First Time Solo’ Scotland’s relationship with the rest of Britain hadn’t been as intensely discussed as it was last year since the Act of Union in1707. This was not only because of the Referendum, but also due to the arrival of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and other events during 2014, such as the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. […]
- Indelible Ink: Helen FitzGerald’s ‘The Cry’ James Kelman once stated that real drama is to be found in ordinary people’s everyday lives, and certainly the same could be said about real horror. The supernatural and fantastic may give us a shock or inspire nightmares, but our greatest fear and terror is surely based in reality; the dangers which can be found […]
- Indelible Ink: Neil Munro’s ‘The New Road’ What can be said about Neil Munro? In a Canadian obituary, it was written: “Neil Munro – the very name o’ him is grand to hear. A grand name, wi’ something baith braw and hamely in it. A name wi’ a sniff o’ peat reek, the bloom o’ heather, a skirl o’ the pipes, an’ […]
- Indelible Ink: Candia McWilliam’s ‘Debatable Land’ One of the never ending discussions about books is whether the meaning comes from the reader or the writer. Of course, the answer is both, but where the balance lies is constantly shifting, and often circumstances and situation dictates this as much as the writing itself. Candia McWilliam’s ‘Debatable Land’ is full of rich metaphor […]
- Indelible Ink: Christopher Brookmyre’s ‘Quite Ugly One Morning’ We have said before in these columns that the early to mid-nineties in Scotland was one which was politically bleak, no matter what your persuasion was. The victory of the John Major led Conservatives in 1992’s UK election saw Labour victorious in Scotland, and with no power in the rest of the UK, the promised […]
