Books

Home James - Sean Connery

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

As Sean Connery returns to Edinburgh for a date in Charlotte Square Gardens, author Ewan Morrison recalls growing up in the ultimate 007’s shadow and wallowing in those iconic one-liners

No more heroes - graphic novels

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

The Book Festival is once again acknowledging the rapid expansion in graphic novels. Henry Northmore chats to a number of comic book guys (and girl) to ask what the future may hold for the superhero While graphic novels may be still be a minority…

You've been mangoed - Mohammed Hanif

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

The mysterious death of Pakistan’s dictator General Zia is still the subject of fevered speculation today. Mohammed Hanif tells Claire Sawers about a debut novel he’s based on memories, rumours and jokes Mohammed Hanif has always been a daydreamer.

Kid loves - Children's books round-up

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

Harry Potter may have played his last game of Quidditch and Lemony Snicket’s series of events have unfortunately ceased to be, but there are still plenty of iconic figures hanging around in children’s literature. Brian Donaldson finds ten of them…

Salman Rushdie

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

Salman Rushdie’s new book The Enchantress Of Florence came close to being stillborn but he believes it represents the rebirth of his talent. The writing of his 11th novel was disrupted by the exit of his fourth wife, Padma Lakshmi. Distraught, Rushdie…

Karen Campbell

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

As luck would have it, Karen Campbell could draw on her former career in Strathclyde Police for inspiration for her literary debut. Published earlier this year, The Twilight Time is an atmospheric, fast-paced novel which introduced us to Anna Cameron, a…

Best of the rest - Edinburgh Book Festival

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

Philip Gourevitch. Having reported on the genocide in Rwanda, Gourevitch is back with a journey into the heart of America’s darkness as Standard Operating Procedure analyses the hell of Abu Ghraib. Steven Berkoff In town to direct On the Waterfront…

Bound for glory - James Bond

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

With a new Bond movie on the way in the creator’s centenary year, 007 fever is rising. David Pollock flicks through an exhibition celebrating the cover designs of Ian Fleming’s pulp novels With Daniel Craig now installed as an updated, reinvigorated…

Richard Mason

Edinburgh International Book Festival

22 Jul 2008

In some forms of entertainment fame can often come extraordinarily early (music and film perhaps), but with mechanisms in place to help the ‘victims’ deal with the onset of celebrity. In the literary world, support systems are less common, especially…

Bat's Life - Dark Knight

17 Jul 2008

Leigh Rafferty traces the highs and lows of the caped crusader’s cultural career

Stranger in a strange land

17 Jul 2008

Amazingly, Strange & Stranger is the first critical retrospective of the life and work of legendary American comic book artist Steve Ditko. The shy son of Eastern European immigrants who was born in Pennsylvania in 1927 may have languished in relative…

5 Travel Books

17 Jul 2008

Ellie Nielsen Our Own Piece of Paris Subtitled ‘How We Fell in Love with the City of Light’, this follows one woman’s quest to find an apartment that oozes Parisian chic. Atlantic. Kapka Kassabova Street Without a Name Subtitled ‘Childhood and Other…

Alan Moore & Brian Bolland - Batman: The Killing Joke

17 Jul 2008

SUPER VILLAIN (DC) New blockbuster Dark Knight is all about the Joker. At first glance he’s almost a comedy character, but in the right hands he can be genuinely terrifying. As a character, The Joker represents insanity at it’s worst; a gibbering…

Barbara Ehrenreich - Going To Extremes: Notes From a Divided Nation

17 Jul 2008

POLITICAL NON-FICTION (Granta) Although any balanced reader might browse the political essays and features of left-wing American commentator Barbara Ehrenreich and get a vague sense of agitprop being deployed, perhaps that’s just the author’s bold…

Batman: Gotham Knights

17 Jul 2008

Intended to fill the gaps between Batman Begins and Dark Knight, Gotham Knights offers us six animated shorts, much in the same way as The Animatrix did for The Matrix. Each story is self-contained and created by a different writer (including Greg…

David Sedaris - When You Are Engulfed in Flames

17 Jul 2008

ESSAY COLLECTION (Little, Brown) A criticism often aimed at writers once they reach the publication of their third or fourth book, is that they forget all the things that endeared them to the book-buying public in the first place, and either…

Donald Ray Pollock - Knockemstiff

17 Jul 2008

SHORT STORIES (Harvill Secker) Knockemstiff, Ohio, is so deprived it doesn’t register on maps anymore. This debut set of interconnected shorts about its people by former resident Donald Ray Pollock is unlikely to make anyone want to find the town…

Film Books Round-up

17 Jul 2008

In terms of wealth of research and weightiness of tome Richard Brody’s biography of Jean-Luc Godard, Everything is Cinema (Faber) ••••, should be a masterpiece. Yet for all its detail Godard remains an enigma, and this seems neither for want of research…

Glen Neath - The Fat Plan

17 Jul 2008

FICTION (Portobello) The trouble with writing a novel satirising the mundanity of life and the mind numbing tedium of bureaucracy is, well, it risks being mundane and tedious. This second minimalist novel from Neath aims at the likes of Beckett…

Michael Green & Denys Cowan - Batman: Lovers and Madmen

17 Jul 2008

SUPER VILLAIN ( DC ) The main problem with Lovers and Madmen is that in many ways it is contradictory to the events in The Killing Joke (which have become accepted as the origin story to the Joker over the years). It depicts the Joker as far…

Thomas Hettche - What We Are Made Of

17 Jul 2008

CINEMATIC THRILLER (Picador) The blurb on the flyleaf of Thomas Hettche’s German Booker prize-shortlisted novel likens his page-turning thriller to the films of David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino. Certainly, Hettche’s prose style is cinematic, not…

Various - Superman: Emperor Joker

17 Jul 2008

SUPER VILLAIN (DC) Despite an impressive writing team – including Jeph Loeb, JM DeMatteis and Ed McGuinness – Emperor Joker is a mess. This time, Superman takes on the harlequin of hate in a reality-warping tale as the Joker takes on God-like…

Also Published - 5 Debut Novels

3 Jul 2008

Shona MacLean - The Redemption of Alexander Seaton Historical crime set in 1620s Banff in which a disgraced minister seeks to clear his name when a body is found in his house. Quercus . Harry Sidebottom - Warrior of Rome: Fire in the East The first…

Andrew Sean Greer - The Story of a Marriage

3 Jul 2008

HISTORICAL TALE (Faber) Can you ever, really, truly know someone? Andrew Sean Greer begs this question with his third, remarkable piece of fiction, a compelling and beautifully-penned tale of love, long-kept secrets and motherly sacrifice set against…

Antony Moore - The Swap

3 Jul 2008

COMIC NOVEL (Harvill Secker) Cartoonists have for years been creating humorous/nostalgic stories about the obsessive pastime of comic book collecting: see Joe Matt’s confessional memoir The Poor Bastard and the eccentric whimsy of Seth’s Wimbledon…

Bethan Roberts - The Good Plain Cook

3 Jul 2008

FAMILY DRAMA (Serpent’s Tail) In the mid-30s, the American heiress and philanthropist Peggy Guggenheim set up house in the Sussex countryside with her daughter, her poet lover, his daughter, and a young local girl to cook for them. Bethan Roberts has…

Bob Levin - Most Outrageous

3 Jul 2008

NON-FICTION/BIOG (Fantagraphics) Looking for a suitable subject for the follow-up to his book The Pirates and the Mouse – a wickedly funny account of a gang of comic book creators who satirised themselves into court with the Disney Corporation, Bob…

Festival frenzy as Edinburgh gears up for August

3 Jul 2008

With just three weeks until Edinburgh officially takes its place in the spotlight as one of the world's greatest cultural playgrounds, festival news and views have been coming in thick and fast. Perhaps most contentious is the news that after capturing…

Irvine Welsh - Crime

3 Jul 2008

CRIME DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) Irvine Welsh has never shied away from the seamy side of life, and for his ninth novel he crosses the Atlantic to the balmy climes of Florida, only to uncover a cesspit of evil that would put some of his previous local…

Jim Cartwright - Supermarket Supermodel

3 Jul 2008

‘I’ve got something to tell you,’ confides Jim Cartwright, in a rascally, Lancashire drawl. ‘I used to be called Maureen.’ But, as it turns out, that wasn’t where he drew the inspiration for his novel, Supermarket Supermodel. A chat with the Northern…

John Whalen & Mike Hawthorne - The Un-Men: Get Your Freak On

3 Jul 2008

MURDER MYSTERY (DC/Vertigo) The Un-Men were deformed approximations of man brewed up with a mix of science and sorcery by Swamp Thing’s arch-nemesis Anton Arcane back in 1972. They’ve cropped up several times through the years, and now launch their…

Last Word - Ewan Morrison

3 Jul 2008

First film you saw that really moved you The Elephant Man. I was 12 and ran away from the TV and wept in the shower for an hour. It was that whole thing about the Cathedral made of matchsticks, and him going to sleep without a pillow even though he…

Mark Evanier - Kirby: King of Comics

3 Jul 2008

BIOG (Abrams) As befits a book about the man who reinvented comics with the most dynamic artwork the medium had ever seen, friend and colleague Mark Evanier’s biography/critical commentary is a large format coffee table hardback full of big and…

Mark Millar & JG Jones - Wanted

3 Jul 2008

THRILLER/SUPER VILLIAN (Top Cow/Titan) As yet another comics-based blockbuster hits the big screen, Titan brings us this timely repackaged re-release. Wanted was written by one of the comics world’s leading lights, Scotland’s own Mark Millar, a…

Stephen McGinty - Fire in the Night: The Piper Alpha Disaster

3 Jul 2008

SCOTTISH HISTORY (Macmillan) The Scotsman journalist Stephen McGinty’s Fire in the Night is a moment-by-hideous-moment account of the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in which 167 men died, and published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the…

Last Word - Ron Butlin

19 Jun 2008

First record you ever bought ‘Nutrocker’ by B Bumble and the Stingers. A pioneering example of fusion – rock’n’roll meets Tchaikovsky. Still a landmark of tasteful desecration. Last time you were chatted up Last Saturday night! It was after I’d…

Also Published - 5 Crime Thrillers

19 Jun 2008

Terence Strong - President Down Former intelligence officer Phil Mason is called on to hunt down al-Qaeda cells in the UK. Simon & Schuster . Daniel Silva - Moscow Rules Gabriel Allon returns to Russia to find the country awash with oil wealth…

Charlie Newton - Calumet City

19 Jun 2008

COP NOIR (Bantam) Charlie Newton makes no effort to dodge cop noir’s inherent clichés in his debut, but rather uses them to lure the reader into something grimmer than they could have anticipated. There’s naturally a hard-as-nails Chicago detective at…

Damon Galgut - The Imposter

19 Jun 2008

LITERARY TALE (Atlantic) Damon Galgut is in possession of an astute grasp of human nature and a poetically brusque prose that affords him bleak leanings, coaxing the reader on, almost against their will. There is an underlying malice and tangible…

Edinburgh International Book Festival programme announced

19 Jun 2008

Festival fever continued apace last week following announcements about the Free Fringe Festival, The Edinburgh Interactive Festival and – most anticipated of all – the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Book Festival organisers said this year's…

Ewan Morrison - Distance

19 Jun 2008

RELATIONSHIP DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) Anyone who has ever embarked on a long distance affair knows they can be pretty tumultuous, and when Ewan Morrison (an author developing a reputation for his insightful portrayals of relationships) chooses to explore…

Janet Frame - Towards Another Summer

19 Jun 2008

Blurring of fiction and fact and the overlapping of character and writer have long influenced the interpretations of Janet Frame’s work. With her writing featuring characters who resembled her and experiences lifted from her life, readers have often…

Leah Hayes - Funeral of the Heart

19 Jun 2008

SHORT STORIES (Fantagraphics) Welcome to the weird world of Leah Hayes. Where an elderly couple digs mysterious tunnels at night. Where a young male kitchen hand becomes a duck-slaughtering expert when his girlfriend develops an unusual illness. Or…

No Holds Bard - Mocumentary to honour Robert Burns

19 Jun 2008

Ugly Betty and Extras actress Ashley Jensen is just one of many Scottish celebrities set to star in No Holds Bard, a 60-minute comedy mocumentary, due to begin filming next week. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Jensen…

Paul Bibeau - Sundays with Vlad

19 Jun 2008

COMIC TRAVELOGUE (Constable & Robinson) Paul Bibeau is a man on a mission. He wants to tell the world the story of Dracula, the real Vlad the Impaler facing off against Bela Lugosi’s Hollywood-ised version, and explaining why never the twain can meet.

Rivka Galchen - Atmospheric Disturbances

19 Jun 2008

EXPERIMENTAL DRAMA (Fourth Estate) Very few books are either complex enough to keep a reader interested until the end or simple enough to describe in a few words. The debut novel by Rivka Galchen proves it is possible to be both. The story is easy…

Steve Niles & Kelly Jones - Batman: Gotham After Midnight No 1

19 Jun 2008

SUPERHERO (DC) In the arena of American superhero comics, Batman and the X-Men’s Wolverine are probably the most over-saturated characters. It can be a minefield trying to guess which titles featuring either character on the cover are actually…

Steven Deighan & Terry Cooper - Feels Like Stephen King

19 Jun 2008

HORROR (Steven Deighan Publications) Small press printing of young Edinburgh horror author Steven Deighan's short story adapted to comic format. Telling a morbid tale of the publishing industry as a young writer is approached by a jaded publisher with…

Various - Fantasy Classics: Graphic Classics Volume 15

19 Jun 2008

HORROR (Eureka Productions) Graphic novel adaptations of classic works of literature are becoming more popular these days, and American series Graphic Classics pack in more updating for your buck with an anthology format. They’re not quite in the…

Sean Connery to appear as part of Edinburgh International Book Festival 2008 programme

12 Jun 2008

Catherine Lockerbie today celebrated 25 years of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, announcing the biggest and most international programme ever. The packed series of literary and political events taking place in Charlotte Square Gardens this…

Daren King

5 Jun 2008

Daren King lives in a strange world. Not in real life, you understand, for there he lives in Dublin because of the generous tax breaks for writers, which is perfectly normal and not at all strange. No, the strangeness of Daren King is in his head and on…

Alexander Terekhov - The Rat Killer

5 Jun 2008

ALLEGORICAL DRAMA (Alma Books) Alexander Terekhov wrote this political allegory when he was 27. Bad timing meant it failed to make waves outside Russia, as critics were busy unearthing older, established writers suppressed under the communist regime.

Mark Watson - Crap at the Environment

5 Jun 2008

POLITICAL COMEDY (Hodder & Stoughton) When reducing your carbon footprint, the first thing to do is admit that you’re crap at the environment. This is according to stand-up comedian, writer, TV personality and one-man iceberg melter Mark Watson, who…

Simon Critchley - The Book of Dead Philosophers

5 Jun 2008

PHILOSOPHER HISTORY (Granta) Alongside religious types, the permanently unhealthy and stand-up comedians, philosophers have a nightly battle with questions about the process of dying and the actual reality of having snuffed it. Naturally, none of them…

Also Published - 5 Auto-biographies

5 Jun 2008

Andy Murray - Hitting Back The Dunblane lad may still be a slip of a boy but those memoirs start coming out earlier every year. Here’s the story of his life with Wimbledon fast approaching and another media frenzy brewing. Century . Russell Watson…

Bruce Jones & John Romita Jr - The Incredible Hulk: Return of the Monster

5 Jun 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) This year’s blockbuster roster is jam packed with comic adaptations, and Marvel’s second big hitter of the year, The Incredible Hulk (after the considerable success of Iron Man) smashes it’s way onto the big screen this…

Dan Slott & Juan Bobillo - She-Hulk: Single Green Female

5 Jun 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) Finally how could we ignore She-Hulk? After receiving an irradiated blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters inherited some of his powers and strength. However, she’s in control of her emotions and isn’t…

Greg Pak, Carlo Pagulayan & Aaron Lopresti - Planet Hulk

5 Jun 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) We reviewed World War Hulk in issue 599 ( ••• ) but let’s go back to the story that launched Hulk on his revenge fuelled tirade against planet earth. The Illuminati (a secretive cabal of superheroes that includes Iron Man, Mr…

Helen FitzGerald - Dead Lovely

5 Jun 2008

CRIME NOVEL (Faber) Once I got beyond the fact that the murderer in this crime thriller-meets-chick lit novel resides on my Glasgow street, I found plenty to enjoy in Helen FitzGerald’s debut. Opening with Krissie’s confession that she’s cheated with…

Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale - Hulk: Gray

5 Jun 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) He’s probably as famous for his tough green hide as his anger-management problems but the Hulk has spent several years as a grey goliath (in fact he was grey in his first ever appearance in 1962). Some creative teams work…

Will Lavender - Obedience

5 Jun 2008

MYSTERY THRILLER (Macmillan) Will Lavender’s debut is a taunting puzzle mystery which explores the dark side of academia. The strangely enigmatic Professor Williams of Winchester University sets his logic and reasoning class a challenge: an…

The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s

22 May 2008

Forget Teddy Sheringham or Craig Brewster. Each would have to play on for almost another 20 years to match the footballing career of Roy Race, who turned out for and then player-managed the famous Melchester Rovers from 1954 to 1993 (with a brief…

Neil Astley & Pamela Robertson-Pearce - In Person: 30 Poets

22 May 2008

POETRY DVD/BOOK (Bloodaxe) Tucked inside the book of the same name comes a smart pair of DVDs which platform the depth and range which poetry publisher Bloodaxe have been offering us for three decades. In Person is a celebration of the intimacy that…

Jason Lutes - Jar of Fools

22 May 2008

TRAGEDY/NOIR (Faber) First serialised in Seattle’s alternative newspaper The Stranger back in 1993, and anthologised in the US in 2003, Lutes’ remarkable graphic novel is long overdue a decent European release. Jar of Fools tells the story of…

Michael Bond - Paddington Here and Now

22 May 2008

KIDS COLLECTION (HarperCollins) When a book series returns from a long absence to mark its main character’s anniversary, it can often feel too much like a rushed job created purely to ensure that the keynote guest isn’t late for their own party.

Alan Grant, Jamie Grant & Various - Wasted No.1

22 May 2008

ANTHOLOGY (Bad Press) Devised by sometime 2000AD writer Alan Grant, and the artists at Glasgow’s Hope Street Studios (which includes the All-Star Superman team of Jamie Grant – no relation to Alan – and cover artist Frank Quitely), Wasted is the…

Also Published - 5 Father's Day Books

22 May 2008

Andrew Clover - Dad Rules Subtitled ‘What I Learned from My Girls’, this book based on the columns from this actor and stand-up is all about being in touch with your feminine side when it comes to fatherhood. Fig Tree . Sarah Brown & Gil McNeil…

Matt Groening & Various - Big Brilliant Book of Bart Simpson

22 May 2008

COMEDY (Titan Books) The boast that The Simpsons is now the longest running animated TV series of all time is a bit of a double-edged sword. For as it rolls out episode after episode, into the multiplexes and beyond, the permutations for new plot…

Rodge Glass - Hope For Newborns

22 May 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Faber) After the success of debut No Fireworks, Rodge Glass returns to themes of lapsing Judaism, focusing on what it means to be British in an age where homeland pride is a misty-eyed memory, and an anomaly to third generation…

Susan Greenfield - ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century

22 May 2008

SOCIAL ANALYSIS (Sceptre) Susan Greenfield, the Oxford-based professor, neuroscientist and broadcaster, is worried that modern living is pushing us towards a more dumbed-down society, where addictive, hedonistic, self-centred behaviour is winning out…

Various - The Definitive Iron Man

22 May 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel UK) With Iron Man proving to be the first genuine blockbuster of the summer season (and a fantastic adaptation of the source material) Marvel UK presents the ultimate introduction to ol’ Shellhead. The collection offers slices of…

Véronique Ovaldé - Kick the Animal Out

22 May 2008

FAMILY DRAMA (Portobello) For this French writer’s fourth novel (but first in translation), we are in the head of 15-year-old Rose, a girl who spends much of her time on her apartment’s roof terrace wearing a cape and playing with her rabbits. Rose…

HarperCollins to launch social networking site for authors

9 May 2008

HarperCollins UK has released its new social networking site Authonomy in private beta. The book publisher first announced the initiative in October 2007, and the site was expected to launch in early 2008. Authonomy aims to connect aspiring authors…

John Burnside - Glister

8 May 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Jonathan Cape) It’s safe to say this latest novel from Fifer John Burnside won’t be sparking a tourism boom on the east coast anytime soon. But his bleakly beautiful tale digs beneath the surface of the everyday to do what he does best…

Mark E Smith with Austin Collings - Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith

8 May 2008

MUSIC BIOGRAPHY (Viking) The real joy of Mark E Smith and The Fall has always been expecting the unexpected. His music has always stuck to a rigid formula but is somehow never formulaic, and he’s survived every British musical subculture since punk…

Anne Donovan - Being Emily

8 May 2008

I first saw Anne Donovan in 2001 on the underground ‘stage’ of Glasgow’s 13th Note Café, surrounded by beer bottles, graffiti and posters advertising upcoming gigs by the punk and metal bands that usually played there. People were crammed into the tiny…

Also Published - 5 Travel Books

8 May 2008

Daniel Kalder - Strange Telescopes Following up his Lost Cosmonaut, this intrepid Fifer goes on the hunt for some more offbeat individuals in the former Soviet Union. Faber . Susanna Clark - A House in Fez Subtitled ‘Building a Life in the Ancient…

Ed Park - Personal Days

8 May 2008

COMIC THRILLER (Jonathan Cape) Set in an unnamed New York company, Ed Park’s quirky debut begins like a Dilbert cartoon or a particularly deadpan episode of The Office. A group of interchangeably fireable wage slaves, their jobs ill-defined even to…

Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson - The Boys II

8 May 2008

SUPERHERO SATIRE (Titan) Some 20 years ago Alan Moore asked the question: ‘Who watches The Watchmen?’ Garth Ennis answers the question with this anarchic superhero satire about a gang of super-powered, CIA-backed thugs who police – with extreme…

John Miller - Secret Agent: Chronicles of Doom

8 May 2008

SPY SATIRE (Small Press) You can see the work of Edinburgh cartoonist John Miller on posters and adverts hanging in the city’s Deadhead Comics, but none hint at his proclaimed double life as the template for James Bond, with inspiration imparted to…

Jordan Crane - The Clouds Above

8 May 2008

FANTASY (Fantagraphics) American cartoonist Jordan Crane’s all-ages graphic novella first published in 2005 makes its paperback debut complete with five previously unseen pages. It’s actually a follow-up to the self-published and now out-of-print The…

Richard Cowdry & Various - The Bedsit Journal No 2

8 May 2008

COMPILATION (Bedsit Journal) Marshalled together by the artist and writer Richard Cowdry whose previous comic seed bombs include Kartoon Cuts and Knucklehead, this funny, bitter and vulgar collection of new comic book talent proves what can be done…

Richard Mason - The Lighted Rooms

8 May 2008

FAMILY DRAMA (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) The Lighted Rooms takes on a vast array of human experience from Boer War concentration camps and townships of modern-day Bloemfontein to commodities trading crises and antiseptic nursing homes in 21st century…

William Sutcliffe - Whatever Makes You Happy

8 May 2008

FAMILY COMEDY (Bloomsbury) William Sutcliffe, Edinburgh-based spouse to Maggie O’Farrell and schoolmate of Ali G, is still best known for his 1997 coming of age debut Are You Experienced? Eleven years and three more books later, his fifth novel…

Shortlists for James Tait Black Memorial Prizes announced

2 May 2008

The 2008 nominations for the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes , Britain's oldest literary awards, have been announced. The Prizes are awarded annually by the University of Edinburgh for the best work of fiction and the best biography published during…

Janelle Brown

24 Apr 2008

It might be set in a curtain-twitching west coast suburban American town rife with neighbourly intrigue and extra marital affairs, but Janelle Brown’s debut novel is no Desperate Housewives. In All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, far darker things go on…

James Kelman - Kieron Smith, Boy

24 Apr 2008

POST-WAR NOVEL (Hamish Hamilton) James Kelman doesn’t have a reputation for writing easy-to-read books. Not necessarily a bad thing, since often the most rewarding fiction is the most demanding. Compared to his last two novels, Translated Accounts and…

Andrew Drummond - Elephantina

24 Apr 2008

HISTORICAL TALE (Polygon) Scottish author Andrew Drummond has a strong reputation for writing comedic historical novels, and while this third book covers similar territory, it seems thinner on substance than his previous outings. Purporting to be the…

Brent Ghelfi - Volk’s Game

24 Apr 2008

CRIME THRILLER (Faber) This debut novel from former US Court of Appeals clerk Brent Ghelfi introduces us to Alexei Volkovoy. ‘Volk’ (‘wolf’), a one-time sniper for the Russian Army in Chechnya, is now an unscrupulous gangster commissioned to steal a…

Also Published - 5 Sports Paperbacks

24 Apr 2008

Barry Davies - Interesting, Very Interesting Over 40 years of broadcast commentating are recalled here by a man who reached the peaks when he went on Big Train to cover the World Stare Out Championships. Headline . Eddie Jordan – An Independent Man…

Civil War: Iron Man

24 Apr 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) He’s an Avenger; he’s been Secretary of Defence; he’s a member of the shadowy Illuminati. But nothing exemplifies Iron Man’s key position in the world of comics more than his role in Marvel’s huge crossover event of 2006, Civil…

Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle

David Michelinie, Bob Layton & John Romita Jr

24 Apr 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) In the world of comics Iron Man is one of the main players in the Marvel Universe. As provisional leader of the Avengers for many, many years, he’s helped shape the fictional world more than most. However Iron Man hasn’t crossed…

Iron Man: Extremis

Warren Ellis & Adi Granov

24 Apr 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel) This is perhaps the classic modern Iron Man tale. Warren Ellis gets his grubby hands on Tony Stark and changes him forever. Here the Golden Avenger takes on bio-chemically altered terrorists, who possess more power than even his…

Steven Galloway - The Cellist of Sarajevo

24 Apr 2008

WARTIME DRAMA (Atlantic) ‘It is a sad tune. But it doesn’t make me sad,’ someone said of the cellist who played Albinoni’s ‘Adagio’ for 22 days in remembrance of innocents killed while standing in a queue for bread. This is a sad book, but it might…

The Invincible Iron Man

24 Apr 2008

DVD (12) 80 mins (Lionsgate) The new big budget feature isn’t the first Iron Man movie as this 2007 animated feature from Marvel proves. The film revisits Iron Man’s first showdown with the Mandarin. The animation is fine but overall the film…

Tim Winton - Breath

24 Apr 2008

TEENAGER STORY (Picador) Tim Winton’s first novel for seven years is ostensibly a coming of age story which follows Bruce Pike (‘Pikelet’) from naïve and wild adolescence into emotionally maimed adulthood. Most of the time, however, Breath reads like…

Writers announced for Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat

24 Apr 2008

John Burnside and Romesh Gunesekera have been selected for 2008’s Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat, the Scottish Book Trust has announced. They will be joined by a third writer for the chance to find inspiration on one of Scotland’s most beautiful…

Lorna Martin: Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

16 Apr 2008

Lorna Martin's life is a mess – or so she thinks. By most people's standards the 30-something Glaswegian journalist has very little to worry about: she has a successful career with the Observer newspaper, earns a decent living and is perfectly healthy.

Alice Thompson - Author Interview

10 Apr 2008

A very relaxed-sounding Alice Thompson has just returned to her Edinburgh home after a short stay in Glen Artney, the rural retreat that provided the main inspiration for her eerie latest book. She is eager to explain what it is about the atmospheric…

Joe Humphreys - Foul Play

10 Apr 2008

SPORT HISTORY (Icon Books) With the protests surrounding the Beijing Olympics going into overdrive, disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers seeking a new career in rugby league and the integrity of referees, umpires and line judges being called into…