The crisp night air was a reviving tonic as he stumbled a few more steps out the street away from the woozy warm fug of the bar. Autumn leaves swirled around his feet.… Continue reading
Jason Donald, Dalila (Jonathan Cape, 2017) An interview with Jason Donald By Lynnda Wardle Jason Donald’s second novel, Dalila, tells the story of a young Kenyan asylum seeker who flees her rapist uncle… Continue reading
Photo: Peter Iain Campbell / http://www.peteriaincampbell.co.uk There’s a woman standing at the helm TEN of vessel number two and her hair is as black as a coal seam. Her fogged-up eyes are squinting,… Continue reading
Margot Livesey Mercury (Harper, 2016) by Anne Kniggendorf (author image Tony Rinaldi) Studying logic at the University of York made a deep impression on Scottish novelist Margot Livesey. “Oneof the developments in logic was the… Continue reading
Vicky Jarrett, The Way Out (Freight, 2015) By Gerard Lee McKeever Writing about the poor is a dangerous game. It is, perhaps, the most dangerous game in literature. The exploration of disadvantaged social… Continue reading
By Rory Scothorne Utopias are hard to avoid. Look at the popular culture of rich western societies, for instance. TV series like Master of None show implausibly wealthy millennials spending implausible quantities of… Continue reading
Tales from a Cancelled Country: An Anthology of Fiction, ed. Alan McMunnigall, Brian Hamill & Stuart Blackwood (thi wurd books, 2015) By Gerard Lee McKeever Back in early April, Darren “Loki” McGarvey wrote a… Continue reading
Amy Liptrot The Outrun (Canongate, 2016) by Kevin Addies A memoir of addiction, relapse and renewal, to describe The Outrun merely as an affirming tale of perseverance in recovery does not do it justice. At times… Continue reading
Walter Scott, Waverley (1814) In this year of celebration and examination of all things Scottish, the bicentenary of Walter Scott’s prose debut seemed to fall almost faintly. Far greater tribute was paid to… Continue reading
This story has previously been published on MJ Corrigan’s blog #9 Dream. On the corner of Victoria and Albert, I watched as the rain washed the blond sandstone of the buildings opposite a… Continue reading
