It isn’t easy being a freelance arts writer. While I’m fully aware there are worse jobs to have (I previously worked in a call centre, a hotel and in retail, uggghhh) there are a few issues with this bizarre occupation. Firstly, some publications insist that they will pay you, only to renege at the lastContinue reading “Freelancer’s Blues”
Category Archives: Books
Book Preview: Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium
Long before Alan Cumming made ill-advised dance theatre pieces about Robert Burns, he was, alongside Forbes Masson. the cheeky double act Victor and Barry, two plucky aspiring thespians from the mean streets of Kelvinside. Who can forget such timeless musical theatre gems as ‘Marks and Spencer ‘ or ‘Kelvinside Men’? Luckily for us. we canContinue reading “Book Preview: Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium”
Book Review: Janey Godley – Handstands In The Dark
Scottish comedian and actor Janey Godley is currently touring with a typically unsparing title, the Not Dead Yet tour. This is because she’s been battling cancer. It’s this sense of looking life (and death) directly in the eye that permeates throughout her comedy career and in this, her memoir, first published in 2005. Born intoContinue reading “Book Review: Janey Godley – Handstands In The Dark”
Book Review: Lemn Sissay- My Name Is Why
British Ethiopian poet and performer Lemn Sissay writes prose in the same way that he speaks: succinctly, openly and with no time for bullshit. It’s this no -nonsense approach that he brings to his devastating memoir, My Name Is Why. For the first twelve years of his life, he had lived with a Christian familyContinue reading “Book Review: Lemn Sissay- My Name Is Why”
Book Review: Kazuo Ishiguro- A Pale View of Hills
This debut novel from Kazuo Ishiguro ruminates on the unreliability of memory, love, friendship and generational trauma. Skipping between past and present, Etsuko, the narrator, attempts to reconcile both as she weaves a complex story of life in the UK and her past in post-war Japan. But it seems that history casts a long shadow.Continue reading “Book Review: Kazuo Ishiguro- A Pale View of Hills”
The Arts Are Not A Luxury
I grew up in a small working- class rural town in Perthshire, Scotland. Nothing much happened there; we didn’t have much money and TV was our only dose of culture. In my house, books were shoved into cupboards, hidden away like skeletons, and theatre, with the exception of am- dram panto, wasn’t “for the likesContinue reading “The Arts Are Not A Luxury”
The Joy of Black Books
The real anti -Friends With its Tom Waits style theme tune, Surrealist lunacy and cast of three who were like a late nineties, UK based version of Jules et Jim, Black Books remains one of my favourite TV shows of all time. Written by Dylan Moran alongside Graham Linehan, it was cut from a differentContinue reading “The Joy of Black Books”
Pills, Grunge and Gen X- Prozac Nation At Nearly Thirty
There were of course notorious books before this, like ‘Go Ask Alice’ by Anonymous, a searing account of abuse and drugs set around the sixties counterculture, and seemingly a true story. There was ‘Valley of the Dolls’ (sex,drugs, hippies -but fictional) Then there was Pamela Des Barres and her groupie memoir, ‘I’m With the Band’.Continue reading “Pills, Grunge and Gen X- Prozac Nation At Nearly Thirty”
Lawrence: Perennial Pop Genius
Not found in the usual outlets, Lawrence is, as I may have previously stated, a pop genius. At the start of 2023, to little fanfare, Mozart Estate (previously Go-Kart Mozart) released the singular ‘Pop-Up! Kerching!And The Possibilities of Modern Shopping’. Lawrence has crafted THE austerity era album here,bar none. Mr Hayward, the Brummie maverick behindContinue reading “Lawrence: Perennial Pop Genius”
Overlooked Classics: The Butcher Boy
Both the book by Patrick McCabe and film, co-adapted by McCabe with Neil Jordan, are brilliant. Francis Brady could have been a Holden Caulfield, but he was much, much more insidious: a study in everyday psychopathy. Francis Brady, portrayed with equal parts cheek and horror by the wonderful Eamonn Owens is the titular character. SomethingContinue reading “Overlooked Classics: The Butcher Boy”
Hit The North 