- 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: 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 […]
- 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 […]
- 11 Scottish Acts Announced for SXSW 2015 With the annual South by Southwest Festival less than 4 weeks away, let’s have a look at some of the Scottish acts that have been confirmed for Austin’s biggest festival, (updated March 6th).
- 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 […]
- Are You An Expat Scot With An Opinion On the Referendum? The National is Scotland’s newest daily newspaper and it aims to become a strong, proud and permanent voice in the Scottish media landscape. Importantly, it is the only daily newspaper that supports the idea of independence for Scotland. The newspaper now features a regular column entitled ‘View From Abroad’ and we were recently approached by […]
- 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’ […]