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Indelible Ink: Alexander Trocchi’s ‘Young Adam’
There are times when a piece of art comes along and nothing is ever the same again. Such arrivals fulfill three functions; they come to represent their time, they change what will follow, and, often brutally, they kill what had preceded them. Or at least appear to at the time. Think of the impact Joyce’s […]
Alistair Braidwood
August 1, 2011
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Indelible Ink: Doug Johnstone’s ‘The Ossians’
Writing about music in prose is difficult to get right. Fictional bands are judged against the great Spinal Tap and most readers will be aware of all the clichés that accompany rock n’ roll and those who play it from the many biographies of bands (personal recommendations are ‘The Hammer of the Gods’ which details […]
Alistair Braidwood
July 4, 2011
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Indelible Ink: Ali Smith’s ‘The Accidental’
Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). Every story has a beginning, middle and an end. Ali Smith’s 2004 novel ‘The Accidental’ takes this truth and plays with it in a manner that is inventive, witty and incredibly assured. Smith had been winning awards and a growing readership since her […]
Alistair Braidwood
May 2, 2011
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Indelible Ink: Kevin MacNeil’s ‘The Stornoway Way’
There can be little argument that contemporary Scottish fiction is Central Belt centric. Most of the tales told come from, and are normally set in, the area dissected and connected by the M8. However that situation is slowly changing and a writer who shows the way, and who has come to be one of my […]
Alistair Braidwood
April 4, 2011
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Indelible Ink: Duncan McLean’s ‘Bunker Man’
There is a quote on the cover of my paperback of Duncan McLean’s ‘Bunker Man’ from Cosmopolitan Magazine that claims ‘Duncan McLean is Scotland’s answer to Roddy Doyle’. If a fan of Doyle were to pick up ‘Bunker Man’ on this recommendation they would be in for a shock, particularly if their knowledge of Doyle […]
Alistair Braidwood
March 7, 2011
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Indelible Ink: Ron Butlin’s ‘The Sound of My Voice’
Ron Butlin seems to be one of Scottish writing’s best kept secrets and I don’t quite know why. Scotland is lucky to have the writers we do, and Butlin can show his medals with the best of them. He is perhaps best known as a poet, he is Edinburgh’s Makar after all, but even in […]
Alistair Braidwood
February 7, 2011
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Indelible Ink : Suhayl Saadi’s ‘Psychoraag’
When books are at their best they teach us not only about the lives of others but something about ourselves. That’s why it is important to any culture that it has as diverse a selection of voices and writers as possible. White males, Scottish or otherwise, have been overrepresented historically and artistically, and anyone who […]
Alistair Braidwood
January 3, 2011
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Indelible Ink : James Kelman’s ‘Kieron Smith, boy’
There are few more divisive figures in Scottish writing than James Kelman. He is the Marmite of modern novelists. You either regard him as a visionary and a culturally relevant writer whose use of working class Scots dialect make him a representative for those who rarely appear in novels except when fulfilling a stereotype for […]
Alistair Braidwood
December 6, 2010
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Indelible Ink : James Robertson’s ‘The Fanatic’
There is a book which has arguably influenced modern Scottish literature more than any other, and it’s not the one you’re thinking of. James Hogg’s 1824 ‘The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner’ has come to be many writers’ favourite Scottish novel, but few wear their hearts on the page like James Robertson.
Alistair Braidwood
November 1, 2010
