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RBS Talks - Vicky Featherstone

Books and Fiction

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Adrian McKinty

Adrian McKinty: Fifty Grand

(3 stars)9 Jul 2009

Seeking to avenge the death of a father she hardly knew, cop Mercado flees unrelentingly bleak Cuba for the celebrity-filled Colorado ski resort where he was killed in a hit-and-run, his demise covered up with a pay-off to the sheriff. With a luxurious…

Inherent Vice

Thomas Pynchon: Inherent Vice

(4 stars)9 Jul 2009

Less than half the length of his last 1000-page tome and riffing on the relatively straightforward hardboiled crime genre as opposed to the exhausting literary mash-up of Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon’s seventh novel is the reclusive author’s most…

Book of Clouds

Chloe Aridjis: Book of Clouds

(3 stars)9 Jul 2009

The Scottish climate comes in for a fair bit of stick but if Book of Clouds is to be believed, there’s more to dreichness than we think. Chloe Aridjis’ Berlin is awash with the wet stuff, from torrential downpours to misty masses. Tatiana is a young…

On Black Sisters' Street

Chika Unigwe: On Black Sisters’ Street

(3 stars)9 Jul 2009

The depiction of modern prostitution is often one-dimensional, something this skilled new writer is seeking to address. Chika Unigwe is Nigerian-born but now lives in Belgium, the setting for this evocative and heartfelt novel. Four African women share…

Wasted No. 2

Various: Wasted No. 2

(3 stars)9 Jul 2009

More Scottish comic action this fortnight with the second issue of Wasted. Much like its predecessor Northern Lightz, it’s a cheeky selection of comedy shorts from names such as Alan Grant, John Wagner, Jamie Grant, Alan Kerr, Curt Sibling, Dave…

Oxfam

Comics in Scotland: Oxfam Bookfest

9 Jul 2009

Whack! Bang! Wallop! There’s ample reason to don the lycra this fortnight as Oxfam’s Bookfest celebrates comic writing in Scotland. Ferg Hadley (Spiderman, Marvel UK) and Dave Bishop (ex-2000AD and Dr Who) talk comic book writing and graphic novels…

Jane Bussmann - The Worst Date Ever

Jane Bussmann - The Worst Date Ever

25 Jun 2009

‘You know you’ve arrived when Britney Spears snubs you and Nicole Richie congratulates you.’ Journalist and comedy writer Jane Bussmann is smiling as she peruses the LA stomping ground, which so mercilessly provides fodder for her memoir, The Worst Date…

American Flagg!

Howard Chaykin - American Flagg!

28 May 2009

With a penchant for eroticism and violence, US comics visionary Howard Chaykin is releasing another groundbreaking work. Miles Fielder chats to him.

Jake Arnott

Jake Arnott: The Devil's Paintbrush

(3 stars)28 May 2009

Moving far away from his London-centric crime tales, Jake Arnott has plundered a chance and highly unlikely meeting between two figures from Britain’s colonial past. The Black Isle-born Hector Macdonald, aka Fighting Mac, was a proud general who fought…

Also Published: 5 Upcoming Novels

28 May 2009

David Peace Occupied City Back home in his native Yorkshire, the Damned United author delivers the second of his Tokyo stories with Japan now in its third year of US occupation. Faber, 6 Aug. Thomas Pynchon Inherent Vice The reclusive scribe…

Chuck Palahniuk: Pygmy

Chuck Palahniuk: Pygmy

(3 stars)28 May 2009

Having tackled the taboo subject of porn in his last book Snuff, Chuck Palahniuk’s tenth novel sees the controversy-courting author moving onto another no-no topic with this wickedly witty tale of terrorism in the American heartland. A terrorist attack…

Giles Foden: Turbulence

Giles Foden: Turbulence

(2 stars)28 May 2009

Giles Foden’s novel opens with the fantastical vision of icebergs being towed from Antarctica to Saudi Arabia for the purpose of watering the Sheikh’s desert. Taking in sea lions trained to detect mines, frissons and debate, the horror and waste of war…

Helen Fitzgerald: My Last Confession

Helen Fitzgerald: My Last Confession

(4 stars)28 May 2009

Glasgow-based Aussie writer Helen Fitzgerald likes to walk a high-wire in her fiction, balancing between the two disparate genres of intelligent chick-lit and dark, violent noir crime writing. In lesser hands it could be a mess, but Fitzgerald always…

Khaki Shorts

Various: Khaki Shorts

(3 stars)28 May 2009

More underground comics action pierces your mind as Khaki Shorts returns after a two-year hiatus. It’s a distinctly Glaswegian title (with just a dash of Edinburgh wit) packed with acidic humour ranging from sci-fi pastiche to police action with…

Margaret Elphinstone

Margaret Elphinstone: The Gathering Night

14 May 2009

Margaret Elphinstone has carved out a fine career as a purveyor of excellent historical novels, but for her latest offering she’s done something a bit different and gone prehistoric. The Gathering Night is set in Mesolithic Scotland, somewhere between…

Colm Tóibín: Brooklyn

Colm Tóibín: Brooklyn

(4 stars)14 May 2009

Times are tough in Enniscorthy, a small job-scarce town in the south-east of Ireland where idle gossip and parish dances are the only entertainment on offer for the young and restless. Instantly likeable leading lady Eilis Lacey’s life is turned upside…

Janice Galloway

Spirit of Jura

(3 stars)14 May 2009

While various coffee houses of the Scottish capital have taken credit for providing the caffeine-fuelled watershed for JK Rowling’s career, few places have such literary resonance as Jura. The iconic isle was the isolated spot where George Orwell, fresh…

Peter Wild (Ed): Paint a Vulgar Picture: Fiction Inspired by The Smiths

Peter Wild (Ed): Paint a Vulgar Picture: Fiction Inspired by The Smiths

(3 stars)14 May 2009

These short story collections of Peter Wild’s are certainly well designed for grabbing fans’ imaginations. He gets a fistful of contemporary writers to extrapolate from the songs of a particularly iconic band with The Fall and Sonic Youth having…

New British Comics No 1

New British Comics No 1

(3 stars)14 May 2009

New British Comics does exactly what you’d expect by gathering together a selection of up-and-coming comics talent, with a particularly strong Scottish showing. Don’t let the admittedly striking Tim Rees cover fool you: this isn’t superhero or even…

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: State of Grace

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: State of Grace

16 Apr 2009

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s voice reflects a life split between America and her home country, Nigeria. So while she’ll enunciate each of her words clearly and slowly, she’s also picked up that uniquely American habit of adding a questioning ‘right?’ at…

The Secret of the Black Moon Moth

The Secret of the Black Moon Moth

(4 stars)16 Apr 2009

John Fardell must be responsible for an awful lot of frustrated children at bedtime. Whether they’re being read to, or reading alone, when the end of a chapter signals lights out it’s almost unbearable. King of the cliff-hanger and a master of…

Alan Moore

Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette & John Totleben - Saga of the Swamp Thing

(5 stars)16 Apr 2009

COMICS/SUPERHERO There’s no point going over old ground: if you have even the vaguest interest in comics you’ll know of the genius of Alan Moore. Watchmen, V For Vendetta and From Hell are established classics of the medium, as of course is Saga of…

Ben Moor - More Trees to Climb

Ben Moor - More Trees to Climb

(3 stars)16 Apr 2009

Comedy and theatre writer Ben Moor isn’t cool. He can’t be described as edgy, cutting or, even on the flipside, geek chic. Too wholesome to be indie, and too intellectual for personal whimsy, Moor’s seemingly fad-free short stories shun the fripperies…

Rebecca Gowers - The Twisted Heart

Rebecca Gowers - The Twisted Heart

(3 stars)16 Apr 2009

Kit is a gangly Oxford literature student, immersed in her thesis about the fictionalisation of real-life murders by Victorian authors. To let off steam, she goes to a dance class and meets a mysterious bloke called Joe, embarking on a relationship…

Gillian Philip - Crossing the Line

Gillian Philip - Crossing the Line

(4 stars)16 Apr 2009

Fiction for teenagers often tries too hard to protect or lecture its readers, with sanitised characters and everything rounded off into a neat anti-drugs or anti-sex moral. It’s very rare, and exciting, to find a writer like Gillian Philip, who…

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