Writing features A-G

Poetry in Motion
Conflagration, snow and intense frustration, HANNAH ADCOCK finds there is more to St Andrews and StAnza than she expected.
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A Shabby Habit
The shop is a danger to health and safety, computers are sarcastic and serendipity lends a guiding hand. HANNAH ADCOCK works in a secondhand bookshop.
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Reinvention
As the pace of development quickens in Edinburgh, HANNAH ADCOCK investigates causes, costs and consequences.
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New Voices
The Debut Authors' Festival is the only British Festival dedicated to bringing together the most exciting debut writers from Britain and beyond. HANNAH ADCOCK checks out the talent.
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Afloat
JENNIFER MCCARTNEY describes how she made the surprisingly swift transition from creative writing student to published author. Her first novel, Afloat, is both joyfully idyllic and strangely dystopian.
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Truth Telling
Sir Francis Bacon wrote his utopian novel, New Atlantis, to show how his scientific method of observation and experimentation could be successfully incorporated into society to its great improvement. However, HANNAH ADCOCK argues that fiction and fact can make uncomfortable bedfellows.
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Gandhi's Interpreter: a life of Horace Alexander
Former Edinburgh University Reader, Geoffrey Carnall describes how he came to write a biography of the Quaker and diplomat HORACE ALEXANDER, and what so fascinated him about the man in the first place.
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I have a strange feeling about this
Reassured by the lack of stuffed crocodiles and alembics, FIONA ALLEN become a volunteer subject for the Parapsychology Unit of Edinburgh University. The elusive tug of intuition had already shaped important events in her life.
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Tales of the Unexpected
Author GILL ARBUTHNOTT writes about the series of unexpected events connected with her first children's novel, The Chaos Clock, inspired by the grotesque and wonderful Millennium Clock which stands in the lobby of the Museum of Scotland.
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'The Worst of People': Greenlandmen in Fact and Fiction
Here author and historian MALCOLM ARCHIBALD investigates the infamous Arctic whalers, represented as ruffians and debauchers by common opinion, and finds they had many fine qualities. He recounts how he came to write a book of fact and a book of fiction about their lives.
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Fu Man Who?
Aberdeen based DJ and musician KENNY ATKIN talks to Bonnie Griffin about the launch of his new label, VaVa Records.
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Iain Banks Interview
Andrew Wilson's archive interview with IAIN BANKS took place in 1994, shortly before the publication of Whit.
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Lightness in the Highlands
Biography of Gaelic poet MEG BATEMAN, by Robert Davidson.
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American Idiot?
Writer, performer and producer MARTIN BELK is a recent immigrant to our fair Scottish shores, and has a few observations to make on the similarities and differences between Edinburgh and his own New York City.
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ADAM! Put down that APPLE... NOW!
Burned just once too often by a piece of malfunctioning machinery, MARTIN BELK energetically argues against the tyranny of computers, and the purveyors of these false idols.
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Pieces of Eight
One Dead Pauper, One Dead Poof, One Junk Boy, One Writer & One Clown, One Pathological Liar, One Starving Continent and Live8 Moments... MARTIN BELK's third Textualities piece.
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You're Dead Now Dance.
It's not about you is the message from the corporate entertainment industry, says MARTIN BELK. You just stand there pushing the buttons you're supposed to push while your money is steadily siphoned from your pocket. Is there any hope for the future of our world of corporate whores?
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King George, Queen Blair & New York Whores
Nationalism could be a four-letter word, according to MARTIN BELK. Why else would an intelligent populace tolerate, nay support, an oil war and a redneck president, than because they have been whipped into an unthinking patriotic fervour by the powers that be?
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In Defense of Paris: Vive la Résistance!
Upon his return from Paris, MARTIN BELK unpacks his perceptions of cultural tensions in France, the UK and the US and questions if we are right to compare ourselves so favourably against each other.
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The Closing of the Western Mind
MARTIN BELK's opening salvo in the debate on what liberal education should be.
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An Indian Writer in Japan
NABARUN BHATTACHARYA is an award-winning Indian writer and poet with a gift for literary metaphor and deadpan wit. In this short story he follows the life and supposed death of a self-serving writer of the most inferior species.
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Legitimate Anger
In this audio interview Indian writer and poet NABARUN BHATTACHARYA discusses politics, poverty and keeping an open mind.
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Living on an Island: An approach to geopoetics
NORRIE BISSELL, director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics, describes the island of Luing, where he loves to linger.
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Grand Master
Geoff Chandler remembers the magnificent play and controversial life of DAVID IONIVICH BRONSTEIN, Russian Chess Grandmaster.
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Christopher Brookmyre in Conversation
This is the edited transcript of a question and answer session with thriller writer CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE at North Edinburgh Arts on Wednesday 16 March 2005.
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The Poetry of Michael Brown and Valerie Lawson
An audio interview with influential North American performance poets MICHAEL BROWN and VALERIE LAWSON.
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Watson Sherlocked
Curator of the Scottish Magic Archive GORDON BRUCE reveals his bibliographic hunt for the mysterious magician Arthur Watson.
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Gregory Burke Interview
Razor sharp dialogue has brought GREGORY BURKE, writer of the plays Gagarin Way and The Straits, a deserved reputation as a shining new talent. His gift was first recognised and nurtured at the Traverse theatre, Edinburgh.
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West Port Murders
The murders committed by WILLIAM BURKE and WILLIAM HARE in early eighteenth-century Edinburgh are infamous and the story well known, though often corrupted in the telling, says bookseller/publisher Bert Barrott.
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Deliberately Thirsty
Author PETER BURNETT discusses the 2006 Thirsty Lunch Edinburgh Festival author events, a packed programme that included James Kelman, Jennie Daiches, Alasdair Gray and Alison Flett.
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Sense of Belonging
A sense of belonging, and its elusiveness, is at the core of a new novel from RON BUTLIN. Here in an audio interview with Jennie Renton he discusses a book that has been variously described as a sophisticated literary thriller and as a modern morality tale.
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Run of the Horse
In this audio interview with Jennie Renton, GERRY CAMBRIDGE explains the vision that drives him as founding editor of The Dark Horse, one of the most distinctive literary magazines to come out of Scotland.
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Catherine Carswell
CATHERINE CARSWELL was a writer whose books set out enthusiasm for life, and a delight in the fact that things in the world are various and different.
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Not Even From Lewis, Mate
The Lewis chessmen are not chessmen and they did not come from the Isle of Lewis, argues GEOFF CHANDLER, setting the cat among the rooks and no mistake.
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Who's afraid of the Mahabharata?
Offered tantalising glimpses of the major Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata, at an early age, SRIA CHATTERJEE recounts her evolving passion for this enormous text.
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Pictish Studies
Author and Pictish expert, GRAEME CRUICKSHANK, traces Pictish scholarship from its modest and largely archaeological beginnings pre 1950, to the wide-ranging and influential body of work available today.
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The Soul of a Book
Bengali writer NABANEETA DEV SEN is one of India's leading writers and thinkers. In this audio interview, she envisions a natural falling away of patriarchy and the wisdom of Indian women becoming harnessed for the future through education.
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Glasgow Dragon
Jennie Renton talks to DES DILLON about his new book, Glasgow Dragon, as well as his early days as an author and his philosophy of writing.
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Angus Dunn's Cromness Craic
ANGUS DUNN talks about the inspiration for his first novel, Writing in the Sand, with his editor, Jennie Renton. With a quirkiness all of its own, this offbeat fantasy set in the fictional town of Cromness brings to mind Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure and Doctor Who.
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Been There, Dunnett
Teacher Marjorie Leithead discovers a passion for the novels of DOROTHY DUNNETT.
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Rescuing the Prince
The 2007 Nigeria Prize for Literature was jointly won by Akachi Ezeigbo and Mabel Segun. AKACHI EZEIGBO heard the news shortly after her return from a sabbatical as a visiting research fellow at Royal Holloway University, London. She lectures in Gender Studies at the University of Lagos.
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Meddling Again: Writing Poor Mercy
Author and playwright JONATHAN FALLA describes the process of writing his latest novel, Poor Mercy, based upon his experiences with an aid programme in Sudan.
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The Blue Cabin
Following the collapse of his business, MICHAEL FAULKNER and his wife Lynn left Scotland for a small cabin on the uninhabited island of Islandmore in Northern Ireland. Michael wrote The Blue Cabin about their experiences; it is part-adventure tale, part-love story, beginning with disruption and concluding with discovery.
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Interview with Maggie Fergusson
MAGGIE FERGUSSON's Life of George Mackay Brown is an engrossing portrait of the Orcadian writer. Here she speaks to Textualities editor Jennie Renton about her first meeting with Mackay Brown, her impression of the man, and her experiences writing his biography.
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Ian Hamilton Finlay: Of Conceits and Collaborators.
The 'concrete poet', sculptor and garden designer IAN HAMILTON FINLAY is currently the subject of an exhibition at the National Library of Scotland.
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Some Polished Gems
Historian and former Scots Magazine editor MAURICE FLEMING describes writing The Ghost o' Mause, The Real Macbeth and The Sidlaws.
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The Other Auld Alliance
Edinburgh-based BASHABI FRASER is one of those busy people who make things happen. A writer and academic, she devotes much energy to raising awareness in Scotland of the Indian arts.
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Sandman Gets in Your Brain
Fantasy writer NEIL GAIMAN, author of the Sandman series and American Gods, interviewed by Andrew Wilson.
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An Evening with Clara
As part of the North Edinburgh Arts Meet the Author series JANICE GALLOWAY discussed Clara, her novel about Robert Schumann's wife. The recording of the talk is presented here.
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Janice Galloway Interview
From the Scottish Book Collector archives, Volume 2, Number 6. Ruth Thomas interviewed JANICE GALLOWAY shortly after publication of The Trick is to Keep Breathing, her novel about the struggle with life at the interface of what is called sanity and what is called madness, as experienced by the ironically named 'Joy.'
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Eddie Gibbons Interview
Football provides the theme for the latest poetry collection from EDDIE GIBBONS. In this audio interview for textualities.net he discusses the loves of his life - language, laughs and Liverpool.
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Young Guns
'Lowbrow and literary' may seem like a contradiction in terms, but contradiction has an honourable place in the One O'Clock Gun team's armoury of verbal squibs and skylarking, as editor CRAIG GIBSON indicates in this audio interview.
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Crossing Borders
Zimbabwean author GABRIEL GIDI discusses his love for language and his politically charged writing in this audio interview with Jennie Renton.
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The Madding Soldier
New short fiction from Zimbabwean author GABRIEL GIDI. He juxtaposes the insanity of the madman and the madness of soldiers in this tense political satire.
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For Tessa at Seventy
To mark TESSA RANSFORD's seventieth birthday, Textualities presents a personal appreciation of her work by Eileen Crerar-Gilbert.
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The Hidden Heart
JANE GOLDMAN, general editor with Susan Sellers of the CUP edition of The Writings of Virginia Woolf, reads Alison Light's Mrs Woolf and the Servants and discusses a new perspective on life below stairs.
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Mothering Words
Interview with performance poet ANITA GOVAN. She talks about the difficulties and joys of balancing motherhood and poetics, overcoming dyslexia to work with words, and her reaction to seeing her poems - until now always performed live - collected for the first time in Jane. She also recites two of her poems, 'Love' and 'Three Monkeys and Me.'
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Fruits of the Imagination
Two new poems from ANITA GOVAN, who is constantly experimenting with new moods in performances of her work.
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The Great Infidel
Interview with RODERICK GRAHAM, the biographer and director of such series as 'Z Cars' and 'Elizabeth R', on his latest book, The Great Infidel, a biography of David Hume.
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