Books

First writes: debut author Sarah Butler discusses Ten Things I've Learnt About Love

The novel tells the story of Alice and Daniel, two people on different searches for meaning

Can you give us five words to describe Ten Things I've Learnt About Love? Home, heartbreak, London, longing, love. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? Maggie Gee, particularly for her novel The White Family, a brilliant…

The Great Gatsby enjoys a resurgence on stage and screen

F Scott Fitzgerald's novel is being adapted by both Baz Luhrmann and Northern Ballet

Not for nothing is F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel deemed one of the greatest books of all time. With descriptive text that often borders on the poetic, The Great Gatsby is a story to savour, not devour. At just over 160 pages, however, it’s as much…

Opinion: Why do we love horror during times of economic uncertainty?

Twilight, The Walking Dead and Dead Set are just some of our recent horrific cultural highlights

After the Wall Street crash of 1929, was it pure coincidence that Universal set about creating a canon of classic horror movies with iconic creations? Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s monster of Frankenstein and Lon Chaney Jr’s Wolf Man continued…

Lucy Ellmann - Mimi

A gleefully weird novel full of mischief and meaning

Across six novels, Edinburgh-based American author Lucy Ellmann has fashioned a quirkily distinctive voice mixing righteous rage with laugh-out-loud humour. Mimi finds her on top form, couching in whimsical wit a provocative riff on romance and…

Tracey Thorn - Bedsit Disco Queen

A wise and humorous pop memoir from the Everything but the Girl singer

This opus from Everything But the Girl’s Tracey Thorn masquerades as a brilliant pop biography, but it’s also a fascinating tale of love, growing up, letting go and finding your way. And it beautifully illustrates how we make sense (and order) of our…

Gillian Clarke, Liz Lochhead and Mark Doty among Stanza 2013 highlights

St Andrews poetry festival focusses on poetic forms and shared legacy of ancient Britons

The five days of StAnza has delivered its stimulating mix of poetry, masterclasses, workshops and slam with sorties into art, music, and sculpture along the way. Despite, the sudden closure of the Byre theatre which had become the central hub of the…

StAnza's Poetry Breakfasts streaming online

Those unable to make it to the St Andrews-based poetry festival can watch online

The StAnza Poetry Festival 2013 is currently in full swing, with wordsmiths Robin Roberston, John Hegley and Gillian Clarke joining Scotland's Poet Laureate Liz Lochhead in St Andrews. This weekend the festival, which runs until Sun 10 Mar, will be…

AL Kennedy - On Writing

‘There is more than one way to burn a book’, AL Kennedy tells us as she discusses censorship and suppression of art. This book is political, and not the technical examination of writing one might expect. On Writing is a collection in three parts: ‘the…

Top 5 watery thrillers, inspired by Doug Johnstone's Gone Again

John Burnside, Jules Verne and Nicci French have all taken inspiration from the sea

In Doug Johnstone’s latest thriller Gone Again, Mark Douglas is photographing whales stranded in the waters off Edinburgh’s Portobello Beach when he discovers that his wife has disappeared. Like Johnstone, these authors all found their inspiration from…

Flash Fiction: Think of Icebergs, by Tania Hershman

The first in our new series of ultra-short stories

‘It’s hot,’ you said. ‘Think of icebergs,’ I said. ‘Melting,’ you said. ‘All melting. What happens?’ ‘When?’ ‘When we run out of ice?’ I put my arm around you, felt your bony shoulders. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘People are clever. Very clever.

The Alarmist #2

The short story magazine features great design but lacks a strict editorial policy

Good design matters in publishing, and the editors of The Alarmist have taken this to heart. There’s no faulting the quirky text layouts and illustration, and the attention to detail is great – the white-on-red MOVE ALONG on the inside front cover, with…

StAnza 2013 to feature appearances by Liz Lochhead, Luke Wright and John Burnside

The poetry festival will also feature art exhibitions, including screenprints by Ian Hamilton Finlay

This year’s StAnza has already had its ups and downs. The recent shock closure of the Byre Theatre in St Andrews (StAnza’s customary nerve centre) almost spelled disaster for the international poetry festival: with the announcement made just weeks…

C Robert Cargill - Dreams and Shadows

A twisted mix of Grimm horror, fairy folklore and clichéd dialogue from the screenwriter and critic

Opening with a chapter in which a sweetly romantic couple are brutally disposed of mere pages after their introduction, this is a dark fairy tale in the truest sense of the word, and distinctly not for kids. But prod beneath its blackly imaginative…

Maggie O'Farrell - Instructions For a Heatwave

A nostalgic novel with vivid characterisation from Costa Book Award winner O'Farrell

An overheated London is the setting for Costa Book Award winner Maggie O’Farrell’s sixth novel, where Gretta Riordan’s retired husband goes out for a paper one morning and never returns. The subsequent search for their father reunites Gretta’s kids…

Luke Wright - Mondeo Man

Poetry collection with a rich strain of empathy from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe favourite

Performance poet Luke Wright’s Cynical Ballads was an unquestioned highlight of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe, earning gushing reviews for his witty, unsparing view of modern England. Several pieces from that show are reproduced here in his debut poetry…

Carol Rifka Brunt - Tell the Wolves I’m Home

A literary coming-of-age debut that's a cut above other young adult fiction

In this literary coming-of-age debut set against the height of the AIDS epidemic, we follow 14 year-old June, a refreshingly under-self-aware protagonist tasked with discovering her beloved, recently-departed uncle Finn’s past. The once-famous artist’s…

Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Nemo: Heart of Ice

Fantastic spin-off from Moore's literary comicbook series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Less than a year after the publication of the concluding episode of the epic third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century, writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O’Neill treat us to the first stand alone/spin-off League tale. As with the…

Cartoon College

Documentary following students at the Center for Cartoon Studies

The Center for Cartoon Studies is a small arts college for aspiring comic artists and writers offering a Master of Fine Art degree to those who pass with their final thesis (which takes the form of a completed comic book). And while there are interviews…

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope

Documentary on the world’s biggest comic convention

Comic-Con in San Diego is the world’s biggest sci-fi, comic and cult convention and Morgan Spurlock’s new documentary is the perfect guide to geek heaven. A place where fanboys and fangirls can feel normal and revel in their passions; there’s a…

StAnza, Fife Jazz Festival and other events to continue in wake of Byre Theatre's closure

The St Andrews theatre is set to close on Thu 31 Jan; scheduled shows will go on in new venues

The Byre Theatre, St Andrews, is being forced to shut down because of its financial difficulties. The theatre has struggled to cover its costs in recent years, with problems exacerbated with the withdrawal of funding by the former Scottish Arts Council…

Extract from Bill & Coo by Ronald Frame

The author lets us glimpse an extract of his work ahead of his reading as part of LGBT History Month

Shit awful name. Bill & Coo. But that’s what came with the franchise, in twirly lettering on the shop front. Bill & Coo ™, to be accurate. Kerry, being Australian, had known about the company. She also knew they were looking to expand their…

Dave Eggers - A Hologram for the King

A witty and erudite social satire about America's place in the modern world

You can practically touch the satire oozing from the pages of A Hologram for the King. This parable of America being diluted and threatened in the face of a brutal global economy has Dave Eggers at his default setting of ambitious, amusing and…

Anne Holt, PJ Tracy Quintin Jardine - spring 2013 crime fiction round-up

Shuichi Yoshida, Elly Griffiths and Anna Smith are also among releasing novels in coming months

Anne Holt certainly has an intriguing background for a prominent career in crime writing. A law graduate and anchor woman on a TV news programme, she worked in the Oslo police department before setting up her own legal practice and then taking on the…

Avengers vs X-Men

Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron and Ed Brubaker are among the writers on this super-crossover

Every year DC and Marvel fans have come to expect a big ‘event’, a huge crossover blockbuster that ties into nearly every title they publish. They can be convoluted and pointless (such as Bloodlines or Zero Hour) while some are great (Civil War or the…

Niall Griffiths - A Great Big Shining Star

Griffiths' social drama about youthful obsession with celebrity is a brutal and barbarous pleasure

As some of the architects of the British micro-celebrity explosion come under the scrutiny of the Savile inquiry, Niall Griffiths deconstructs the life of someone who yearns to live her life in the pages of Heat and Nuts. Grace wants to leave her small…