Books, Brian Donaldson

Kids' events

23 Aug 2007

The last few days of the kids programme takes a walk on the dark side with scary-sounding events such as Night of the Living Horror (25 Aug, 6pm) which opens up a world of gothic terror for those aged ten plus, though Justin Somper and his Vampirates…

David Thewlis

6 Sep 2007

BLACK COMEDY When Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker came up with Nathan Barley on Channel 4 a couple of years back, many people were perturbed that its main sticking point was in poking fun at a group who seemed no longer ripe for satire. Surely…

Dominic Streatfeild

Brainwash (Hodder & Stoughton)

2 Oct 2006

POLITICAL HISTORY From the man who brought us Cocaine comes the richly detailed story of mind control, the full unexpurgated past of truth drugs, hypnosis, Pavlovian experiments and sleep deprivation. Everything from the Moscow Show Trials to…

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…

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…

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

17 Jan 2008

Cathy Kelly - Lessons in Heartbreak Izzie has broken her own rules about having affairs with married men while her ageing aunt has just discovered her husband’s infidelity. HarperCollins . Monty Don - Around the World in 80 Gardens The presenter…

Alistair Findlay (ED) - 100 Favourite Scottish Football Poems

29 Nov 2007

POETRY 100 Favourite Scottish Football Poems (Luath) When it comes to transferring the beautiful game into the arts sphere, all we can see is a litany of own goals. Can you remember a half-decent football film? No, Escape to Victory doesn’t count…

In England - interview with Don McCullin

1 Nov 2007

Don McCullin might seem like some kind of anachronistic beast among the top photographers today. Not for him the simpering vanities of celebrityhood; he has always been far more interested in the real problems that face ordinary people on a daily basis.

Apples

Richard Milward

9 Apr 2007

TEENAGE DRAMA The confused and lusty youthdom of Britain are everywhere at the moment from the seemingly daily scare stories on the tabloid front pages and broadsheet opinion columns to the hedonistic revelry of Skins. On literature’s side, January’s…

Daljit Nagra

Look We Have Coming to Dover! (Faber)

12 Jan 2007

POETRY COLLECTION Daljit Nagra’s parents moved from the Punjab to Britain in the 1950s and it’s no real surprise that his poetry should be knitted together from bits of his cultural heritage and present environment. So, in the opener ‘Darling & Me!…

Derren Brown - Tricks of the Mind

Derren Brown

7 Dec 2006

BIOGRAPHY/MANUAL What’s the first rule among magicians? Surely it’s the one about never ever divulging the secrets of your chosen profession. So, what on earth is Derren Brown doing here telling the humble general public how to develop useful…

Courtney Love

Dirty Blonde (Picador)

11 Nov 2006

CELEBRITY DIARIES When documentary-maker Jacques Peretti began a project about the final days of Kurt Cobain, his approach to Courtney Love was met with a firm rejection: ‘I don’t want to do the rock widow thang anymore.’ But, like or not, and as…

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.

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…

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

28 Feb 2008

Jeffrey Archer - A Prisoner of Birth He just can’t get free of that prison cell, can he? Belmarsh is the setting for a revenge drama where an innocent man has been sent down at HM’s pleasure. Macmillan . Louis de Bernières - A Partisan’s Daughter A…

Mike Dash - Satan’s Circus

17 Jan 2008

TRUE CRIME (Granta) ‘Nearly five million men and women have served the United States as police officers. Only one has been executed for murder.’ There is little doubt that Charles Becker was more than just a bad apple, in an early 20th century New…

Also Published - 5 Unit Shifters

18 Oct 2007

• Jackie Collins Drop Dead Beautiful A psycho on the internet stalks Lucky Santangelo after she opens a flashy hotel complex in Las Vegas. Simon & Schuster. • Patricia Cornwell Book of the Dead Kay Scarpetta opens a private forensic pathology…

Also Published - 5 Travel Paperbacks

6 Sep 2007

• Robert Carver - Paradise with Serpents The author follows in the footsteps of his great uncle as he finds adventure and intrigue in the lost world of Paraguay. Perennial. • Felipe Fernandez-Armesto - Pathfinders This one is a 'history of…

Kids Events

9 Aug 2007

When you say ‘comic’ to a kid they might think of the Beano or Roy of the Rovers (if you’re a kid over 35) but the event with Alan Grant & Cam Kennedy will open up the eyes of teenagers and any young at heart adults in tow. Graphic novels are something…

Top 5 - Fiction Finales

9 Aug 2007

With rumours that the next Inspector Rebus adventure may be the very last one, we look at books which waved a fond farewell to some legendary creations Jeeves & Wooster In 1974, PG Wodehouse gave us Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen (a title which requires…

Bad Men

Clive Stafford Smith

23 Apr 2007

POLITICAL ESSAY Clive Stafford Smith has been privy to some horrible maltreatments of human beings down the years. As a Cornishman with dual UK/US citizenship, he is seen as a saviour to the many Death Row prisoners he has tried to rescue from lethal…

Aye Write!

Mitchell Library, Glasgow, Fri 16-Sun 25 Feb

12 Feb 2007

BOOK FESTIVAL At times, it might seem like the world of children’s writing is a woman’s domain. You can barely move in the kids section of a book store without bumping into a whole shelf dedicated to JK Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson, Anne Fine or Lauren…

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…

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…

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…