Blog: Dear Scotland

There have been a few great Glasgow novels discussed on these pages; Alasdair Gray’s ‘Lanark’, Jeff Torrington’s ‘Swing Hammer Swing’ and James Kelman’s ‘Kieron Smith, boy’ are just three examples, but perhaps the most recognisable literary depictions of the city can be found in Archie Hind’s ‘The Dear Green Place’. Hind didn’t opt for the [...]

Nothing is completely original, but sometimes it is harder to discover some influences than it is others. This is partly because history, cultural or otherwise, is often sold to us in convenient packages of dates, people and places. If you were to read many an overview of Scottish writing in the 20th century you could [...]

So here we go. South by Southwest 2013 kicked off today in my adopted home town of Austin, Texas. Scotland will be well represented over the next 10 days or so with around 12 Scottish companies here for the Interactive festival, at least 1 really cool film, and 12 great bands. I've tried to list [...]

Music and religion. Add in football and you’ve probably got the top three divisive topics in Scotland, even with the Yes/No vote on Independence approaching. In 1994 journalist and broadcaster Tom Morton wrote ‘Red Guitars In Heaven’ a novel which deals with the conflicting nature that a love of pop/rock music and a life devoted [...]

Virtually everyone has already written off Scotland's chances of making the next World Cup. But as I watched us crush Estonia last night I started to wonder what needs to happen for us to make it. I know this is crazy but after crunching the numbers I think we can actually do it. Here's how: [...]

Scottish writers have had an obsession with the nature of evil since they first placed quill to parchment. ‘Good’ is all very well, but the devil has all the best tunes, and the most charismatic representatives. Much of this interest is a result of culturally deep rooted religious belief clashing with a more folk tradition, [...]

Earlier this week, Creative Scotland revealed that they would be supporting five Scottish bands and three DJs to attend this year's SXSW Music festival in Austin. We can also add The Waterboys' Mike Scott, Frightened Rabbit and more to the list of Scottish acts who'll be there. Full list below: So Creative Scotland have announced [...]

Earlier this week, Creative Scotland revealed that they would be supporting five Scottish bands and three DJs to attend this year's SXSW Music festival in Austin. We can also add The Waterboys' Mike Scott, Frightened Rabbit and more to the list of Scottish acts who'll be there. Full list below: So Creative Scotland have announced [...]

There have been a few novels featured in these columns by writers who are as well known, and sometimes better known, as poets. These include Ron Butlin, Kevin MacNeil, John Burnside, James Robertson, Alan Spence, and this month, Jackie Kay. Re-reading her debut novel ‘Trumpet’ I found myself asking if there are any conclusions that [...]

Last week the SXSW Music festival announced a ton of bands for the 2013 event to be held next March in Austin, Texas. Among them are 8 new Scottish bands that will be hoping to be the next big thing of buzz. Regular readers will know that as in 2010,  2011, and 2012 these names [...]

This month has seen two of Scotland’s greatest living writers in the news. Alasdair Gray has had his short fiction collected into one impressive volume, while James Kelman won the Saltire Book of the Year award for ‘Mo said she was quirky’, and in time honoured fashion managed to make the newspapers by forecfully restating [...]

In less than two years, the people of Scotland will vote to decide if their nation should become an independent country. Today, on St. Andrew’s Day, I’m going to explain why I am supporting the Yes campaign. I am a Scot who now lives in Austin, Texas. I was born and raised in Glasgow, I [...]

With the recent success at home and abroad of Scottish writers such as Irvine Welsh, Iain Banks, Ali Smith, Ian Rankin, A.L Kennedy etc, it’s perhaps odd to think of a time when having Scottish novels post R.L. Stevenson in a Scottish house was the exception rather than the norm, at least with most of [...]

In previous columns, mention has been made of the Chemical Generation of writers, whose members included Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Gordon Legge, Laura Hird and Paul Reekie among others. They were a group who appeared in the mid 90s and who were collectively thought of as writers who reflected the thoughts, hopes and dreams (and [...]

Vic has more on The Unwinding Hours this month who are currently blazing a trail through Europe. Tonight they're in Switzerland, tomorrow they will be in Metz and they have just announced a last minute show in London on Friday. Full details of all Scottish gigs abroad on the Scotland on Tour page. The Unwinding [...]

One of the best things about writing this column is that it has given me the excuse to revisit books from my past, and it’s always interesting to see how they’ve aged. In the late 90s I picked up a copy of Ajay Close’s ‘Forspoken’ for the simple reason that she was one of the [...]

Vic returns with his recommendation for the Scottish international gig of the month and it's a cracker. Next Friday night Admiral Fallow will support Franz Ferdinand at the Winterthurer Musikfestwochen in Switzerland. Other Scottish bands on tour outside the UK right now include Django Django, Mogwai and Rod Stewart.  Admiral Fallow at Winterthurer Musikfestwochen by [...]

Recently there has been hot debate about the nature of the Booker Prize and if it has institutionalised class and national prejudice at its heart. I understand why writers view these things as important, but as James Kelman said in his speech following his win in 1994 for ‘How Late it Was, How Late’, he [...]

Integrity is defined in the dictionary as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” There’s no dictionary definition for “sporting integrity,” though there’s been no end of talk about it recently in Scottish football. I thought I’d have a go at clarifying it for you in case you - like me - [...]

As with love, defining what makes something cult is difficult, but you know it when you encounter it. In the late 1980s Scottish writing had been reinvigorated by Iain Banks, James Kelman and Alasdair Gray, amongst others, all of whom are great writers, but who are too high profile to be ‘cult’, and anyway, whether [...]