Books

Anonymous sculptor leaves literary artworks around Edinburgh

11 sculptures made from the pages of books have been discovered

10 Feb 2012

On a quiet day last March, the Scottish Poetry Library received an unexpected gift; a tree, fashioned from words and paper, blossoming from the yellowing book it rested upon. Throughout 2011, ten intricate sculptures appeared at creative organisations…

GFF 2012 - Mark Millar interview

The comic book creator of Kick-Ass and Wanted tells us about his role at the Glasgow Film Festival

13 Feb 2012

Mark Millar has written some of the biggest comics of the last 20 years. He’s tackled the X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman and Fantastic Four alongside...

Is this a golden era for Scottish literature?

Alan Bissett, Helen Fitzgerald and Allan Wilson survey the current literary lansdscape

1 Feb 2012

Alan Bissett The contention is that Scottish literature – due to a combination of factors, including centralised buying by book chains and a backlash against post-Trainspotting fiction – has undergone a difficult time of late, but that the tide is…

Kids' Events

Trains and tweens dominate the first week

7 Aug 2008

Trains and tweens dominate the first week The good, the naughty and the hungry are all in evidence in the opening salvo of the kids programme, with the whole shebang kicked off in boisterous style by queen of tween Cathy Cassidy (9 Aug) who presents…

Charles M Schulz - Small world

15 Nov 2007

It’s the little things that make the difference. In the case of the Charles M Schulz cartoon strips, that could mean the smallest of pen strokes for a raised eyebrow, an extra crease on a forehead, the downward bend on the ends of a mouth. Schulz…

Sean Connery & Murray Grigor - Being a Scot

4 Sep 2008

Many Scots cynics, upon seeing the title of this new coffee table volume by our most famous actor, might be inspired to enquire just how much research on the subject can be done by an ex-pat who hasn't lived in the country for decades. It's an…

Electric Man

A patchy, if well intentioned, Edinburgh-set comic comedy

8 Feb 2012

(12A tbc) 98min Shot in Edinburgh on a micro-budget, comic shop comedy Electric Man declares its intentions from the off: this is to be no social realist kitchen sink drama, typical of the UK film industry, but rather a light-hearted love-letter to…

Preview of 2012 - Irvine Welsh's Skagboys

Renton, Sick Boy et al are revisited in this Trainspotting prequel

6 Jan 2012

Wonder how Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and co got to be the drugged-up life-rejecting Leith loons in Trainspotting? Well, wonder no more, as the publication of Skagboys brings us a bit more background on the individual and social circumstances revolving…

Horrid Henry Day

27 Mar 2008

The naughtiest boy in children’s fiction has his very own day – 1 April, but Borders is getting in early to capture the weekend crowd. Help celebrate the tomfoolery of Francesca Simon’s most famous character at this fun session of Horrid Henry stories…

Alexander McArthur and H. Kingsley Long - No Mean City: A Story of the Glasgow Slums (1935)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

This cutting edge portrait of working-class life in the worst laid scheme in Scotland sticks out like a sore face. Rarely referred to by its subtitle or complimented for its subtlety, when it was first published Glasgow libraries refused to stock it…

Lennoxlove Book Festival

Michael Morpurgo, Alistair Darling, James Naughtie and Julia Donaldson among highlights

17 Oct 2011

Set in the East Lothian woodlands is a five-star luxury accommodation dubbed by Historic Scotland as one of the country’s ‘most ancient and notable houses’. While renowned for its golfing breaks and wedding parties, Lennoxlove (full name: ‘Lennox’s Love…

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…

Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

Economically-told novella from the master storyteller

21 Jul 2011

(Jonathan Cape) Imprecise memory, lifelong regrets and the inconsistencies between shared histories are at the heart of Julian Barnes’ short and sharp new novella. As a title, The Sense of an Ending refers to the way in which his characters…

Michel Faber interview - The Crimson Petal and the White

The author and his wife Eva Youren on the forthcoming BBC adaptation

24 Mar 2011

‘As consumers of culture, we’re both quite cold fish,’ says Michel Faber, linking eyes over the living room with his wife, Eva Youren. She’s stretched out on a windowseat a few feet away. She nods in agreement. ‘We tend to see what the author or…

Storm Thorgerson

30 Apr 2009

Born in 1944, Storm Thorgerson’s childhood would not have been thought unusual were it not that he went to school with Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. ‘Roger and I had two connections, one of which was through our mothers, who happened to be pals, and…

Douglas Coupland & Graham Roumieu - Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People

Pacy but insubstantial short story collection

12 Dec 2011

(Heinemann) For anyone who has a glance at the cover of this book and believes that all they have spied is a cute illustration aimed at kids might want to take a closer look. It suggests that reading this collaboration between Generation X writer…

The Midnight Beast - Book At Us Now

Unfunny pop-parody book designed to cash in on upcoming TV fame

18 Oct 2011

(Coronet) ‘We mock the living hell out of stuff for a living,’ claim London pop parody trio The Midnight Beast. Even in this disposable age, simply poking fun at more talented people can only stretch so far before the game is up. Success rarely…

The big picture: Tattoos

27 Nov 2008

Robots, Hello Kittys, an Etch A Sketch screen, skulls covering an entire back … this fortnight, we’ve mostly been ogling Tattoo Soup, a new compendium of the world’s most unique tattoos. This comic strip was inked by tattoo artist Louis Molloy, from the…

Broons 1939 Annual, The

The Broons 1939 Annual

11 Dec 2006

COMIC ANNUAL Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a Broons Annual under the tree and this reproduction of the very first annual from 1939 finds Dundee’s favourite family getting caught in the same situations they have been re-living over and…

Geoff Dyer - Zona

The multi-talented humourist turns his able hand to film criticism

27 Jan 2012

(Canongate) Having previously mashed-up fiction, journalism, essay, biography and travel writing, polymath and humourist Geoff Dyer once more defies genre with a book that’s one part film criticism, one part autobiography and several parts random…

'Mainly, I’m proud that I don’t have to have a proper job' - David Shrigley interview

The Glasgow-based artist discusses his work

24 Aug 2010

'I suppose the voice I speak with in my work is someone who doesn’t have a sound grasp on all the realities of life. It’s someone who thinks all the really unimportant things are massively important and equally, pays no attention to massively important…

Sloane Crosley - How Did You Get This Number

5 Jul 2010

(Portobello) You have to hand it to someone who footnotes the parental dedication at the beginning of their book with a diatribe about the memory of some still-raw teenage punishment. Then again, you may also feel compelled towards suspicion when you…

Scotland The Great - We are good

22 Jan 2009

Bin the shortbread tin! Trash those Runrig albums! Here are, in The List’s humble opinion, some real reasons why Scotland is worth shouting about

Last word: Mark Gatiss

13 Nov 2008

Actor, screenwriter and novelist Mark Gatiss is best known for his role in The League of Gentlemen and acting in Doctor Who. Here he talks trousers, baked beans and sheds.

Loung Ung

Edinburgh International Book Festival

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh International Book Festival Surviving the peace Author, campaigner and victim of Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia, bestselling writer Loung Ung talks to Allan Radcliffe about how she managed to carry on after the hell of the killing fields