Alasdair Gray

Alasdair Gray prepares for a second reading of Fleck - interview

Scots version of Faust myth to be performed at Margins Book Festival

2 Feb 2012

Will Self described you as ‘a creative polymath with an integrated politico-philosophic vision’, but you say you're ‘a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian’. Which do you prefer as an official description? I don't approve of…

Profile: Louise Welsh, author of The Cutting Room and Naming the Bones

The crime author is set to appear at three literary events this month

1 Feb 2012

Ever since she exploded onto the Scottish literary scene in 2002 with her literary detective novel The Cutting Room, Louise Welsh has proved to be an astute explorer of human frailty. She describes her quartet of acclaimed novels as quests in which an…

Alasdair Gray: City Recorder

Fantastic exhibition of drawings chronicling Glasgow's past

19 Dec 2011

For one year in 1977, at a time when many of Glasgow’s famous old industries were closing, Alasdair Gray was commissioned to capture the life of the city in ink, watercolour, acrylic and oil on paper. Glasgow’s local history museum, the People’s Palace…

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

St Andrew's Day - The best books from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish books through history

25 Nov 2011

First up, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). The ultimate doppelgänger novel, Robert Louis Stevenson’s fiction about the goodly doctor and his hairy malevolent side may be officially set in London but to all intents and purposes this is a…

St Andrew's Day - The best art from Scotland

Our editors pick highlights from Scottish art through history

25 Nov 2011

Virtually unknown until the late 1940s The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (to give the full name of the painting more commonly known as The Skating Minister) is now something of a Scottish cultural icon. The image was created by…

The Writing On Your Wall

Rob Tufnell-curated group show chronicling the history of radical print

28 Oct 2011

When Jeremy Deller put Rupert Murdoch’s walnut face on a sky-blue ‘Vote Conservative’ poster to raise funds for the Labour Party, it looked like satire. Given the ongoing phone-hacking saga, it now feels like prophecy. The ‘Murdoch Doesn’t Give A XXX…

Will Self

The author on his upcoming reading of Fleck with Alasdair Gray

19 Aug 2011

I’ve known Alasdair Gray for a long time now, nearly 20 years. We had the same publisher in England and he came to one of my events in Glasgow, probably in about 1982 or ‘83. We did some other events together around that time and struck up a…

Live Your Questions Now

Group show featuring Alasdair Gray, Ana Jotta, Colin McCahon, Rainer Maria Rilke and Sam Ainsley

10 Aug 2011

As a triumphant call to the graces of old age and experience Live Your Questions Now is a survey show reacting to the art world’s obsessive youth fads. The show’s title is derived from a letter seeking guidance from poet Rainer Maria Rilke: ‘live your…

Sapphire

Author of "Push" among highlights of this years International Book Festival

22 Jul 2011

Now in its second year under new directorship, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is striding with yet more purpose across the August landscape. As well as the usual array of dazzling literary talent from around the globe and on our doorstep, the…

Breaking the Renaissance Code

Exhibition exploring emblems, taking place at The Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow, until Tue 4 Oct

21 Jul 2011

Depending on whether you are a critic or an avid fan of the bestselling Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown both heralded and slew the art of emblematic thinking. This small yet punchy exhibition puts examples of Dürer, Rembrandt and Holbein’s use of symbolic…

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011 line up highlights

Grant Morrison, Will Self and Jo Nesbø among highlights

16 Jun 2011

A selection of international authors, a bunch of Scottish novelists, an array of top non-fiction scribes, a host of children’s writers and a series of exciting innovations: yes, it’s just another Edinburgh International Book Festival programme. A cliché…

The legacy of Scottish arts institutions ECA and GSA

An examination as degree shows and 2011 Turner Prize approach

27 May 2011

When David Shrigley spoke in 2010 about how the arts institutions in Glasgow were crucial to his creative development, he may have been bemoaning the impending threat of arts cuts, but his intervention nonetheless speaks volumes about where art…

Scottish artist highlights from the 2011 British Art Show

Luke Fowler, Alasdair Gray, Nathaniel Mellors, Wolfgang Tillmans

28 Apr 2011

The last time the British Art Show toured to Glasgow was 1990, the year the Dear Green Place took on the mantle of European City of Culture and a watershed year for Scottish art. Twenty-one years on, Scottish visual artists make up a sizeable chunk of…

Cooking Up Talent

Ingr3dients, a new 3D mural by Alisdair Gray, to be revealed at Ubiquitous Chip

9 Mar 2011

Here at List Towers, where we love food and adore Alasdair Gray, we were heartened to hear that the two are set to complement each other this month, with a new Gray mural set to be revealed as part of Glasgow’s Ubiquitous Chip’s 40th birthday…

Art installation at Ubiquitous Chip restaurant offers '3D dining'

Ingr3dients in Glasgow unveils Alasdair Gray’s first digital mural

7 Mar 2011

The Ubiquitous Chip likes to see itself at the centre of the cultural life of Glasgow’s West End. So no surprise that it has come up with something unusual to celebrate its birthday. Famously, Alasdair Gray painted his original murals on the walls of…

The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

16 Dec 2010

The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.

The best visual art exhibitions in Scotland 2010

Martin Creed, Christoph Büchel, Alasdair Gray and Julie Roberts

16 Dec 2010

Martin Creed: Things A playful, humorous and beautifully installed exhibition by Turner Prize-winning artist Creed. Seventeen of the artist’s works were on show under the wonderfully vague title of Things, including piled-up boxes, pot plants, nails…

Gray Stuff: Designs for Books and Posters - Alasdair Gray interview

The Glasgow polymath on expensive art books and why he’s banned from buying flowers and cooking

19 Nov 2010

Scotland’s cherished polymath shares some insights on expensive art books, Walter Scott and why he’s banned from buying flowers and cooking… First record you ever bought My sister and I had seen the Laurence Olivier film Hamlet and we bought the…

Alasdair Gray: Gray Stuff

Murals, posters, books and doodles from Glasgow polymath artist

15 Nov 2010

Alasdair Gray is the very definition of a polymath, and Gray Stuff is a loving testament to his industry and curiosity. The artist’s murals, theatre posters, books and doodles fill the gallery space at Talbot Rice, despite being of rather small…

30 top shows at the Edinburgh Fringe 2010

The List's pick of the Edinburgh Festival programme

23 Jul 2010

From Turner Prize-winning Martin Creed and New York theatre experimentalists The Wooster Group to former wild child Storm Large and promising newcomer Jonny Sweet, this is The List's pick of August’s entertainment.

Work by photographer Chris Close returns to 2010 Edinburgh Book Festival

Portraits of visiting authors appear in Charlotte Square for second year

21 Jul 2010

Chris Close, the photographer behind last year's successful 'almost live' photography display at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, is set to return to Charlotte Square this year with a new series of portraits of visiting authors. Visiting…

Books hitlist

4 Nov 2009

Imprint A strong looking line-up for this East Ayrshire book festival with the likes of James Kelman, James Robertson and Jackie Kay in attendance. Various venues, Sat 7–14 Nov. James Ellroy Borders Books and GFT, Glasgow, Thu 5 Nov…

Hitlist: Books

Two weeks of talks, readings and exhibitions

16 Oct 2009

Alasdair Gray, Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair, Ian Rankin, Helen Fitzgerald, James Ellroy, Gordon Burn

West side story

25 Jun 2009

For decades, the West End has meant one thing to non-WEndies: Byres Road, and while that esteemed thoroughfare is still geographically pivotal, its tributary roads have formed little communities of their own, each with an increasingly distinctive…