Books and Brian Donaldson

Alan Warner - The Deadman's Pedal

Evocative and personal rural drama from the Morvern Callar author

22 May 2012

In a literary career which has played down the overly autobiographical tendency (all that writing from a female perspective malarkey for one thing), The Deadman’s Pedal seems far and away Alan Warner’s most personal fiction to date. We return to the…

Travel books round-up - June 2012

New books from Hardeep Singh Kohli, Samanth Subramanian and Terry Darlington

22 May 2012

He may be a man of Glasgow, but Hardeep Singh Kohli knows a thing or two about travelling around London. In The 38 Bus: A Love Song to a Bus Route (Unbound) he pours out the emotions he has for the route which has served the capital for a century…

First Writes - Elaine Proctor, author of Rhumba

The books tells the story of a Congolese boy’s life in London

22 May 2012

Give us five words to describe Rhumba? ‘They had horns and tails’. Can you name one author who should be more famous than they are now? Mark Gevisser is the brightest, most original witness to the complicated condition of being a global South…

Howard Marks in discussion event with MC5 manager John Sinclair

The two can offer different takes on the 1960s counter culture

22 May 2012

Every generation needs a figurehead to accentuate the fun side of drugs. From Thomas de Quincey to Sherlock Holmes and through to Timothy Leary, the Beatles and Bill Hicks, it’s not all been bad trips and cold turkey (if there any wags out there…

Ewan Morrison - Tales from the Mall

A wealth of information and anecdotes drawn together to paint a funny, scary portrait of our times

22 May 2012

As Ewan Morrison notes in his introduction, the shopping mall is a potent symbol of the homogenised world in which we live now. You could look at images of shopping centres in Dundee and Dresden and chances are you won’t be able to tell them apart. The…

Interview: Irvine Welsh on Trainspotting prequel Skagboys

The new book, Leith, Twitter and the importance of subcultures

25 Apr 2012

Early on in our transatlantic phone conversation, it suddenly becomes unclear whether I’m chatting to Irvine Welsh or Frank Begbie. When I ask whether he might well be the busiest man in Scottish culture right now, the response comes over loud, clear…

New historical books round-up

Kate Summerscale, Paul French, Andrew Martin, Sarah Fraser and John Romer all to release new works

24 Apr 2012

How do you follow up a mind-blowing success like The Suspicions of Mr Whicher? Well, if you’re Kate Summerscale, you understandably get right back onto that period saddle with Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady (Bloomsbury).

Spring book festivals round-up

Colonsay, Boswell and Booked! all offer individual takes on literary festivities

24 Apr 2012

Often it can be a tricky task choosing which Book Festival on the calendar to attend, especially when there’s a diary clash. Whether by accident or design, it’s possible to pop into all three of the major literary extravaganzas over the coming month.

Russell Kane - The Humorist

A gory black comedy from the restless comic

24 Apr 2012

(Simon & Schuster) Anyone familiar with Russell Kane’s stand-up comedy won’t be surprised with his debut dip into literary fiction. The winner of the 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Award might be a restless spirit on stage, but his number one priority is the…

Jenni Fagan, author of Panopticon - interview

Debut features teenage girl trapped in a disturbing social experiment

17 Apr 2012

Jenni Fagan takes on this issue’s debut author Q&A. Her first book features a teenage girl trapped in a disturbing social experiment. Give us five words to describe Panopticon? Gutsy, violent, philosophical, beautiful, sad. Name one author who should be…

Iain Banks - Stonemouth

The spiritual follow-up to The Crow Road is slightly flawed, but still a page-turner

27 Mar 2012

For those Iain Banks fans not overly keen on his sci-fi work, it will be a blessed relief to see no mention of a middle initial ‘M’ in his name here. For those who loved the prickly relationships and family machinations in the smalltown Scotland of The…

Maggie O’Farrell to appear at World Book Night event

A talk with the author of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

27 Mar 2012

Maggie O’Farrell often retells the moment when the notion of authorship became embedded in her psyche. At the age of five, little Maggie was struggling with a story she was penning. On asking if her mother would write it instead, she was met with this…

Gavin Pretor-Pinney - Clouds that Look Like Things

Occasionally unconvincing gallery of cloudy lookalikes

27 Mar 2012

(Sceptre) As founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, Gavin Pretor-Pinney knows more than a thing or two about cirrus and cumulus. And all the other ones. The trouble with this collection is that some of the pictures are, frankly, not very…

How Soon is Now - music books round-up

A round-up of music books from Richard King, Rob Young, Martin C Strong and Bernie Krause

26 Mar 2012

The next best thing to hearing a great record is then going on to read all about it. Unless you feel that analysing music in any way is akin to destroying the purity of the aural experience. If you’re of that opinion then best avoid this clutch of…

First Writes: Catriona Child, author of Trackman

Novel's lead character's life changed by a homeless man’s MP3 player

16 Mar 2012

Give us five words to describe Trackman? Music, Edinburgh, memories, love, loss. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? Brian McCabe. When I first started to take my writing seriously, I went to his writer’s workshop. He was…

Aye Write! 2012 - highlights

Seven of the best events at Glasgow literary festival, including William McIlvanney and William Boyd

28 Feb 2012

William McIlvanney The Saltire and Whitbread-winning author from Kilmarnock reflects on a distinguished literary career which kicked off in 1966 with Remedy is None. Was he the man who began the Tartan Noir phenomenon? 9 Mar, 6pm, £8 (£7). Janice…

StAnza 2012 international poetry festival highlights

Appearances include Jackie Kay and Joe Dunthorne

28 Feb 2012

It always helps a festival event to have some kind of theme in order to bring together many different strands and give the whole shebang a proper focus. Perhaps spoilt for choice, the organisers of StAnza (aka Scotland’s Poetry festival) have gone for…

First Writes: Lisa O'Donnell, author of The Death of Bees

The first-time writer on Glasgow set tale of young orphaned girls

28 Feb 2012

Give us five words to describe The Death of Bees? Contemporary. Dark. Comic. Social. Loud. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? Katherine Dunn who wrote the amazing Geek Love. She’s written other things, mostly about boxing…

City of Literature enLIGHTen project

Quotes from Scotland's finest Enlightenment minds to illuminate the capital

28 Feb 2012

Back in 2010, a City of Literature initiative used Edinburgh as the backdrop to the Carry a Poem campaign. On Valentine’s Day that year, arm-in-arm lovers and single folks mooching around the centre of town on their tod were stopped in their tracks by a…

Tom Perrotta - The Leftovers

The measured delivery of this fantastical story results in impeccable satire

28 Feb 2012

(Fourth Estate) Tom Perrotta’s measured new novel proves that even with the most fantastical story, you don’t have to be flashy to hit your nail right on its head. The Leftovers is about a half-cocked Rapture in which believers and atheists alike…

Crime books round-up – March 2012

Doug Johnstone, Alex Gray and Mari Jungstedt deliver new crime novels this month

17 Feb 2012

As if to show that fiction readers love a good bit of murder and mystery, death and deceit, blood and booze, there’s acres of it about to be scattered around the nation’s book shelves. Doug Johnstone (of this parish) parks his Hit and Run (Faber) at our…

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…

Interview: Eowyn Ivey - author of The Snow Child

Debut author discusses tale of heartbreak and hope set in 1920s Alaska

1 Feb 2012

Give us five words to describe The Snow Child? Alaskan. Wild. Magical. Rugged. Tender. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? M Allen Cunningham. His novel The Green Age of Asher Witherow is one of the finest I have ever…

Jeet Thayil - Narcopolis

Bombay-centric social drama with tangible atmosphere but little narrative drive

1 Feb 2012

(Faber) Narcopolis begins and ends with the word ‘Bombay’. Although several individuals vie for centre stage in poet Jeet Thayil’s debut novel, the main character here is India’s most densely populated city. Viewed as a solemn and dangerous hive…

February round-up: best books on Dickens

Simon Callow, Constance Moore, Jenny Hartley and Ruth Richardson celebrate the novelist's legacy

27 Jan 2012

In February, the rest of the UK will be joining all of dear old London town by taking to our foggy streets in honour of Charles John Huffam Dickens’ bicentenary. Well, perhaps not, but the media has certainly done its best to remind us that 2012 isn’t…

In Process and Great Debates

The Scottish Writers’ Centre's events are keeping the country's literary talent in the spotlight

9 Jan 2012

When it comes to getting the literary community ablaze with conversation or putting scribes under the microscope, the Scottish Writers’ Centre seem to have it down to a fine art just now. In Process is their monthly series of events in which a writer…

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…

The top books for a healthy start to 2012

Dieting and exercise books from Tracy Griffen, Mike Dow, John Briffa and more

5 Jan 2012

It’s that time of year when the season’s jollities come back to haunt you. Stepping on the scales or glancing in the mirror can be a pretty scary prospect. Fortunately, you’re never short of advice in written form come January. Edinburgh-based personal…

Marcus Berkmann - A Shed of One’s Own

Occasionally hilarious, occasionally turgid treatise on middle-age

5 Jan 2012

(Little, Brown) What is middle-age? Is it a fixed number or a fluid miasma of values, outlooks and opinions? Marcus Berkmann, probably correctly, believes it could strike at any time (you could even get a middle-aged teenager) but is perhaps more…

Interview: Lucy Wood, author of Diving Belles

The writer's debut publication is a set of short stories about hopes, regrets and memories

19 Dec 2011

Give us five words to describe Diving Belles? Short stories reimagining Cornish folklore. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? I think everyone should read George Mackay Brown’s fiction and poetry, for his evocation of…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

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…

Interview: Allan Wilson - Wasted in Love

The debut novelist on his collection of vignettes about love, lies, break-ups and betrayal

12 Dec 2011

Give us five words to describe Wasted in Love? Raymond Carver shagging Arab Strap. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now and why? Agnes Owens. Funny, tender and honest, her writing is about the lives of everyday, working…

Simon Armitage - The Death of King Arthur

The Yorkshire poet follows his Gawain translation with another medieval epic

12 Dec 2011

(Faber) In 2006 Simon Armitage embarked upon the commissioned task of translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for a modern audience. Encountering some resistance from the ‘lady on the desk’ at the British Library when he requested a peek at the…

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…

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…

Don Paterson, OBE and bard of Dundee - profile

The Scottish poet is the subject of three different events this month

15 Nov 2011

In a 2009 interview, Don Paterson insisted that the overriding characteristics of his work were ‘stupidity, incompetence and meanness of spirit’. A large handful of sodium chloride can be taken with that statement, as the bard of Dundee is clearly being…

Interview: Selma Dabbagh - author of Out of It

The author answers questions about her debut novel, about a family struggling to survive in Gaza

15 Nov 2011

Give us five words to describe Out of It? Girl. Gun. Boy. Sea. Fence. What was the last book you read? I have spent the last three days in the mood of Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. A brownish, fuggy, alcoholic London novel set in 1939, it…

Top children's books on sale for Christmas

New titles from Jacqueline Wilson, Julia Donaldson, Francesca Simon and David Walliams

15 Nov 2011

While the December market is traditionally slow for adult fiction, when it comes to kids books, it’s a ripe old time of year. This winter there are books from some familiar names and favourite characters which won’t look bad popping out of a woolly…

Sarah Hall - The Beautiful Indifference

The Booker nominee delivers a short story collection with an eye for spectacular imagery

15 Nov 2011

(Faber) Four books into her literary career and a Booker nomination in the locker (for 2004’s The Electric Michelangelo), Sarah Hall is being touted as one of the key British voices of her generation. There is little doubt that she can weave some…

Umberto Eco - On Ugliness

Entertaining collection of art history essays edited by the Italian author

15 Nov 2011

(MacLehose Press) Just as notions of beauty are very much in the eye of the beholder, what constitutes ‘ugly’ can be viewed differently across centuries and continents. Football teams who ‘play ugly’ might still end up as winners, while being told by…

Don Delillo - The Angel Esmeralda

Challenging but ultimately rewarding collection of short stories spanning the author's career

18 Oct 2011

(Picador) Is anyone ever truly happy in a Don DeLillo universe? As the astronaut narrator of ‘Human Moments in World War III’ puts it, ‘happiness is not a fact of this experience’. The profundities and quandaries of existence weigh down mightily upon…

Padgett Powell, author of You & I - interview

The writer follows up his postmodern 'questions' novel with a book-length dialogue

18 Oct 2011

When Padgett Powell was a boy, he knew little of the settled life. With a trucker father, his family was constantly on the move and he reckons that he attended ten different schools and lived in 17 houses during his perpetual-motion upbringing. Perhaps…

V Campbell, author of 'historical teen action adventure quest' Viking Gold - interview

18 Oct 2011

Give us five words to describe Viking Gold? Historical teen action adventure quest. Name one author who should be more famous than they are now? John Christopher for his young adult sci-fi. My husband and I read his books together and they left us…

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…

Christmas comedy memoirs roundup

Lee Evans, Johnny Vegas, Jason Manford and Simon Day all have books on the way

17 Oct 2011

With the Christmas market positively saturated these days with stand-up comedy DVDs, publishers have clearly decided it’s time to cash in by launching a batch of memoirs from folk who may (or may not) have made you laugh down the years. Titlewise, Lee…

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…

Words: North Lanarkshire Festival of Books and Writing 2011

Dennis Canavan, Mark Millar and James Robertson feature on line-up

19 Sep 2011

At locales in places such as Cumbernauld, Kilsyth, Bellshill and Wishaw, the sixth annual North Lanarkshire Festival of Books and Writing unveils a raft of top authors and events for the family which will have the area buzzing for a full month. From the…

Christopher Hitchens - Arguably

Stellar collection of essays from the outspoken journalist

16 Sep 2011

(Atlantic) As Christopher Hitchens movingly concedes in the intro to Arguably, he writes each new slice of social, political and cultural commentary as though it may be his last. While others would have disappeared within their shell at having…

Susan Hill - The Woman in Black

Sinister ghost story with an already-established pedigree

16 Sep 2011

(Profile) As the longest running stage production in Britain after Aggie’s Mousetrap, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black clearly has an icy grip on the theatre-going public. And with news that this classic ghost story will make it onto the big screen in…

Landfall - Helen Gordon interview

The debut author discusses her novel, in which a London arts journalist is stranded in the suburbs

16 Sep 2011

Our debut author Q&As continue with Helen Gordon, whose first book is about a London art magazine writer who returns to her suburban family household and confronts some difficult home truths Give us five words to describe Landfall? Journalist falls…

Julian Rothenstein (ed.) - The Redstone Book of the Eye

Art history book with an eye for detail

16 Sep 2011

(Square Peg) Having started Redstone Press in 1986, Julian Rothenstein has produced endlessly inventive diaries, large-format postcards and psychological guides. With The Redstone Book of the Eye, he peers deep into the subject’s iconography and…

EIBF 2011: five lengthy literary works

featuring Adam Levin, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Stephen King and Tolstoy

24 Aug 2011

The Instructions The story of a megalomaniac 10-year-old boy who may or may not be the messiah takes place over the course of just four frenetic days, but Levin’s massive book takes in Israel’s battle for existence and an entire religion’s search for…

Q&A - Author Belinda McKeon

Author's debut addresses battle between the rural and urban

24 Aug 2011

Give us five words to describe Solace? Of love, loss and change. What was the first book you read? Something starring Peter Rabbit. Which book makes you cry? A surprising number of them do, which either says something about me or literature in…

Rebecca Hunt

The author of Mr Chartwell creates a credible and empathetic vision of illness

24 Aug 2011

One of the most intriguing and delectably-crafted debut novels of the past year is Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt. The black dog of Winston Churchill’s legendary deep depression is brought vividly to life through the eponymous mutt (also known as Black…

EIBF 2011: five book-to-screen adaptations

Featuring Joe Dunthorne, Val McDermid, Michel Faber, Alan Hollinghurst and Alexander McCall Smith

17 Aug 2011

Joe Dunthorne With his debut, Submarine, the Welsh poet and author captured the peculiar, rainy-day awkwardness of adolescence, and Richard Ayoade’s film, with Dunthorne’s assistance, did a fair old stab at bringing it further to life. 19 Aug…

Edinburgh International Book Fest 2011: 5 poetry picks

Featuring Michael Longley, Robin Robertson, Czeslaw Milosz, Wendy Cope and John Burnside

17 Aug 2011

Michael Longley One of the most decorated verse-conjurors at this year’s festival, the Belfast-born writer has the TS Eliot Poetry Prize, a Whitbread and the Hawthornden Prize under his belt as well as being the proud recipient of the 2001 Queen’s…

First Writes: Sunjeev Sahota, author of Ours are the Streets

The debut author discusses his first novel, Edinburgh and some of his favourite novels

17 Aug 2011

Give us five words to describe Ours are the Streets? Fathers. Sons. Responsibilities. Belonging. Home. Which author should be more famous than they are now and why? I don’t know how famous or not she is, but I don’t think I hear that much in the UK…

Grant Morrison - Supergods at 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival

Tracing the flashy history of superheroes

16 Aug 2011

If anyone knows what makes a great superhero, it’s Grant Morrison. Having written for both Marvel and DC, the Glaswegian has made valuable contributions to the popular mythology of Batman, Superman and Fantastic Four. In Supergods, he traces his own…

Interview: Ali Smith - There but for the

Scottish writer appears at 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival

9 Aug 2011

There can be few more anxious experiences for an author than turning to the literary section of a newspaper as the book they have slogged over for possibly years is taken apart by a faceless critic. One national paper gave Ali Smith the fright of her…

Five Edinburgh Book Festival guests you'll know from TV

Lucy Worsley, Bettany Hughes, Alexei Sayle, Kirsty Wark and Peter Taylor

9 Aug 2011

Lucy Worsley Delving into the intimate history of old homes and buildings is Worsley’s prime passion and her BBC Four series and book If Walls Could Talk pretty much sums it up. During her years of research, she has uncovered the fact that bedrooms…

Richard T Kelly set for Edinburgh Book Festival appearance

Author of The Possessions of Doctor Forrest

9 Aug 2011

In his second novel, Richard T Kelly conjures up a thrilling romp about three Scottish medics. Here he offers his prognosis on our sickly Q&A Give us five words to describe The Possessions of Doctor Forrest The ones I’d borrow from reviews would be…

Kevin MacNeil - Revamping a classic RLS tale

Book Festival appearance by author of A Method Actor's Guide to Jekyll and Hyde

9 Aug 2011

A sense of place is very important to Kevin MacNeil. You can see it in his 2005 novel, The Stornoway Way, and it’s there with the evocative Edinburgh setting he’s conjured up for A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde. ‘I like the place where a novel…

Joanne Limburg - The Woman Who Thought Too Much

Author of OCD-themed novel appears at Edinburgh Book Festival

9 Aug 2011

We all have stuff we worry about. Job security; an awful accident happening to our loved ones; what tune we should have played at our funeral? That kind of thing. But when it comes to full-on fretting, most of us are rank amateurs next to poet Joanne…

Interview: Joe Dunthorne - author of Submarine and Wild Abandon

Edinburgh shows with Unbound, Aisle16, Luke Wright and Tim Clare

21 Jul 2011

The day before our phone interview, Joe Dunthorne was on Radio 4, bantering with Tim Key about the perfect opening line. Chatting to him the next day, it appears the Welsh-born poet, short story writer and novelist has worked out a potential strategy.

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…

Rules of Civility, Queen of Kings, Spartan, The Submission and America Pacifica

Debut novels round-up

21 Jul 2011

Described by David Nicholls as ‘a smart, witty, charming Dry Martini of a novel’, Rules of Civility (Sceptre) veers from a photographic exhibit in 1966 to a jazz bar on the last night of 1937. In this fizzing debut by Amor Towles (pictured), both places…

Stefan Merrill Block - The Storm at the Door

Fictional biography of Block's grandparents' struggles with mental illness and institutionalisation

21 Jul 2011

(Faber) Based on the true story of Stefan Merrill Block’s grandparents, Katharine and Frederick, The Storm at the Door is the fictionalised account of the trauma which lay deep in the heart of their relationship. A veteran of World War II…

Advertising, Mad Men and the future - John Hegarty interview

Advertising guru set for Edinburgh Book Festival 2011

8 Jul 2011

"In the end, virtually everything I work on is, to a certain extent, irrelevant." After the best part of an hour's chat in which John Hegarty has pretty much sold me on the unparalleled joys and benefits of advertising, it's a refreshing shock to the…

Debut novelists at 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival

Rebecca Hunt, Adam Levin and Mary Horlock among visiting authors

8 Jul 2011

Charlotte Square Gardens will be teeming with quality first novels for the whole of August, one of which will receive the EIBF's Newton First Book Award. Brian Donaldson looks at the cream of this year's debutants

Highlights of the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011

Alasdair Gray's Fleck, Kristin Hersh and Heather Brooke among picks

8 Jul 2011

An event with the writer of landmark works such as Lanark and Poor Things is exciting enough, but the Book Festival has cranked up the fever to 11 with another excellent first. In 2007 Gray wrote Fleck, an adaptation of Goethe's Faust and the closing…

John Hegarty - Hegarty on Advertising

'Turning Intelligence into Magic' with a history of the cut-throat industry

29 Jun 2011

(Thames & Hudson) As the man behind the iconic adverts for Levi 501s (Nick Kamen in his boxers), Audi (‘Vorsprung durch Technik’) and Barnardo’s (a baby jacking up on heroin), John Hegarty is better placed than most to discuss the perfect campaign.

Alan Hollinghurst - The Stranger’s Child

Sprawling 1913 family epic leave reader underwhelmed

28 Jun 2011

(Picador) When it comes to keeping his fans waiting, Alan Hollinghurst has got it down to a very fine art. It’s seven itchy years since the London writer scooped the Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty and this resultant beefy doorstopper proves…

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…

Debut author Rebecca Makkai answers our questions

Brian Donaldson interviews the author of The Borrower

14 Jun 2011

Our debut author Q&As continue with Rebecca Makkai, whose first book is about an odd couple embarking on an improvised road trip Give us five words to describe The Borrower. Librarian, boy, kidnap each other. Name one author who should be more…

Ali Smith - There but for the

The author's new novel deals wittily with the difficulties of modern communication

23 May 2011

(Hamish Hamilton) You rarely get bombs or tornados or motorway pile-ups in Ali Smith books, but the results of inner turmoils within her characters can often be just as devastating. In There but for the, nuances and shades and intricacies stack on…

New music books: Luke Haines - Post Everything, Andy Kershaw - No Off Switch,

Simon Reynold - Retromania, Scott Weiland - Not Dead & Not for Sale

23 May 2011

Semi-absent fans of former Auteur and Black Box Recorder man Luke Haines might have received something of a jolt on suddenly Googling him. The words on the second entry would have immediately caught the eye: ‘It is with deep regret that we have to…

Interview - Alice Ozma

Author of The Reading Promise: 3218 Nights of Reading with My Father

23 May 2011

Give us five words to describe The Reading Promise? Books and love. Not sappy! Which book makes you cry? The Old Curiosity Shop is beat-you-over-the-head sad. I found American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld to be moving in a poignant, calm way. We fall…

Jon Ronson - The Psychopath Test

An examination of craziness by the hapless humourist

17 May 2011

(Picador) About halfway through his new book, Jon Ronson has a revelation. Having spent time with the likes of ‘Tony’ (a violent offender who faked a bit of madness in order to get a lighter jail term but ended up being slung in Broadmoor among the…

Alan Bennett - Smut

Short story collection undoubtably dirty, but disappointingly dry

28 Apr 2011

(Profile/Faber) In an interview last year, Alan Bennett (76), admitted that as he grew older he cares less and less what people think about him. He wasn’t referring to beastly reviewers and their beastly reviews, but to those who might be shocked at…

Celebrity memoirs: Rob Lowe, Barbara Sinatra, Stacey Solomon, Judy Golding and Bear Grylls to publish books

13 Apr 2011

While Charlie Sheen implodes in front of the world’s eyes, he could take comfort in the salutary tale of his old Brat Pack boozing buddy Rob Lowe. In 1988, grainy video footage of him having a wild time with two women became the first commercially…

First Writes: author Felix Riley discusses his 'Secret Service thriller' The Set Up

13 Apr 2011

This issue’s debut author is Felix Riley, whose novel features a man trying to save the US from a devastating attack. Unfortunately, he’s on the run from the NYPD having been framed for murder Give us five words to describe The Set Up? Break neck…

Mark Radcliffe to tour new book, Reelin’ in the Years: The Soundtrack of a Northern Life

13 Apr 2011

When David Bowie implores the public to indulge in thieving, you know it must be for a very good reason. His call to serious felony was raised on the publication of Mark Radcliffe’s Thank You for the Days: A Boy’s Own Adventure in Radio and Beyond, in…

Scenes from an Impending Marriage (A Prenuptial Memoir), by Adrian Tomine

A witty graphic novel with indie sensibilities

13 Apr 2011

(Faber) In February, Adrian Tomine launched the US publication of Scenes from an Impending Marriage (A Prenuptial Memoir) via an onstage conversation with Leanne Shapton. Her last book, Important Artifacts, was the mainly photo-led story of a…

Catherine O’Flynn, Rodge Glass and Ewan Morrison remember David Foster Wallace

Publication of US author's The Pale King

24 Mar 2011

Approaching a David Foster Wallace book is akin to launching towards a psychological assault course. His writings included his 1987 debut The Brooms of the System (about a switchboard operator who fears she may not actually exist), his 1999 short story…

Performance poet Luke Wright set for Glasgow Comedy Festival

Young poet to deliver some Cynical Ballads at Tron

24 Mar 2011

The world of live poetry is a barely recognisable beast to the one which Luke Wright entered in the late 90s. Back then, the likes of John Hegley, Hovis Presley and Murray Lachlan Young were making stage names for themselves, but in a field which had…

Roddy Doyle: Bullfighting

A collection of short stories from the Irish master storyteller

24 Mar 2011

(Jonathan Cape) Having shouldered the full weight of 20th-century Irish history, Roddy Doyle is now almost visibly loosening up. His Last Roundup trilogy may largely have been a thing of literary beauty, but there will be readers relieved to see him…

Wendy Cope: Family Values

Pleasant but unchallenging poetry collection

24 Mar 2011

(Faber) For anyone new to Wendy Cope’s work, the opening gambit of ‘A Christmas Song’ may have you reeling. Its verse rattles along merrily with an almost painful naivety, leading you to wonder if this is a chronology featuring everything she’s ever…

Books from Mark Thomas, Emma Kennedy, Jon Richardson, Andy Riley and Paul Barker

Comedy books round-up March 2011

15 Mar 2011

With the annual Glasgow comedy beanfeast having its last laughs, there are a bunch of opportunities to seek solace in book form. Extreme Rambling (Ebury) by Mark Thomas is the paper version of his current touring show in which he walks the entire length…

Jon Ronson talks psychopathy and telepathy with Professor Richard Wiseman

Event at Edinburgh International Science Festival

15 Mar 2011

In the past, Jon Ronson has written and filmed ordinary people doing extraordinary things, extraordinary folk doing scary things and scary individuals attempting to prove just how ordinary they are. The likes of David Icke (former Coventry goalie who…

Interview - Author Sophie Hardach

Author of The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages

15 Mar 2011

Give us five words to describe The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages? Kurdish odyssey with Parisian denouement. What was the first book you read? A Hello Kitty picture book. Does that count as reading? I think it does. I’m a big…

33 Revolutions Per Minute, by Dorian Lynskey (Faber)

Comprehensive history of protest music

9 Mar 2011

While acknowledging that the protest song has its roots way before the 20th century, music journo Dorian Lynskey kicks off his impressive and extensive history book in 1939 because ‘that is where things get interesting’. This was the year of Grapes of…

Gareth Peirce to appear at Aye Write! book fest

The civil rights lawyer and author will discuss new book, Dispatches from the Dark Side

7 Mar 2011

When it comes to lawyers who have fought tooth and nail for the underdog, they don’t come much more tenacious than Gareth Peirce. Immortalised on film through Emma Thompson’s performance in Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father, which portrayed her…

Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart interview

Author of Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante’s Handbook

4 Mar 2011

Gary Shteyngart is on the phone while taking a cab to a meeting at Columbia University, where he teaches writing. He breaks off to pay the driver, whose roots are unclear but, given that this is New York, could be anything from a Berliner to…

Q&A: Alison Gangel - author of The Sun Hasn’t Fallen from the Sky

Memoir of hard knock life of growing up in care in 1970s Glasgow

4 Mar 2011

Can you give us five words to describe The Sun Hasn’t Fallen from the Sky? Funny, restrained, powerful, optimistic, unsentimental. Or ‘gleaming gem of a memoir’. Which author should be more famous than they are now? Bernard MacLaverty. Beautiful…

Karen Russell - Swamplandia!

A family drama from author of St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

4 Mar 2011

Here comes the debut novel from another one of those clever-clever New Yorker magazine’s ‘20 under 40’ types that we just have to be reading. The premise to Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! is certainly attention-grabbing. Teenager Ava Bigtree has just lost…

The best books of 2010

Shit My Dad Says, Nileism, Mr Chartwell and Hitch-22

17 Feb 2011

Justin Halpern Most often, the noises emanating from Twitter are akin to the pumpfire blurted from the groaning anus of Satan, but almost unbelievably, the odd gem is in there if you care to check. Occasionally, some forward-thinking publisher might…

David Shields - The Thing About Life is that One Day You’ll Be Dead

Essayist's ‘sort of love letter’ to dad mish-mash of references

16 Feb 2011

(Penguin) Shocked by the increasing vitality of his 97-year-old father, essayist David Shields penned this ‘sort of love letter’ to his dad. Shields Snr reportedly wrote back by pointing out the errors in the book. The Thing About Life is that One…

Dominic Streatfeild - A History of the World Since 9/11

Explores victims caught in the less than friendly fire raging since 9/11

9 Feb 2011

(Atlantic) Penning histories of mind control and cocaine can hardly be described as flights of literary fancy, but Dominic Streatfeild has now hit the mother lode of seriousness with his new work. Ever since those two towers came tumbling down, the…

Roger Sterling - Sterling’s Gold

A collection of the finest quips from the Mad Men character

9 Feb 2011

(Grove Press) Take away the dry-as-teetotal bon mots of Roger Sterling from Mad Men and that 60s-set drama would be a different beast altogether. The destructive tendencies of Don Draper, stilted ambition of Pete Campbell and Monroe-esque allure of…