RUARI MCLEAN is a distinguished typographer and a leading authority on the history of book design. Here he describes his forays to antiquarian bookshops in search of Victorian books, in an edited extract from his autobiography True to Type. …

More…Original Types

Geoff Chandler remembers the magnificent play and controversial life of DAVID IONIVICH BRONSTEIN, Russian Chess Grandmaster. …

More…Grand Master

Richard Horne interviewed (HARRY HORSE) in 2001 by Jennie Renton. …

More…Talking a Torrent

Affectionate, slightly irreverent and occasionally scurrilous, JAVIER MARIAS has a new take on Written Lives. …

More…Strange Tales

Moved to reprint the scarce nineteenth title, Annals of the Solway, MICHAEL MOON unexpectedly finds himself straying into the seedy world of Soho bookselling. …

More…A Punt on the Solway

Poet EDDIE LINDEN founded and edited Aquarius, a groundbreaking literary magazine. Over a hundred writers and artists paid their respects in an amazing festschrift. Jennie Renton discovers a man still sparking with electric attitude. …

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A new edition of A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books by Charles Dickens stimulates MICHAEL LISTER to reconsider the Christmas classic. …

More…Seasonal Offerings

MICHAEL LISTER offers unambiguous praise for Against the Christians by John Haffenden, the second volume of the authoritative biography of literary critic William Empson. …

More…Against the Christians

Indulgence, reproach, habit, lie, confession. ALAN TAYLOR discusses the private life and public face of diaries. Whether anodyne or sensational, they all have something to reveal. …

More…A Book Of One’s Own

Interviewed at the 2006 Scottish Poetry Library Small Press Fair, ROBYN MARSACK, director of the Scottish Poetry Library, talks to Jennie Renton. …

More…SPL Small Press Fair 2006

Cromarty author ELIZABETH SUTHERLAND describes her lifelong love of George MacDonald, whose Victorian fantasy writing holds an enduring charisma. …

More…George MacDonald, Mystic Magus

A personal selection by a private collector reveals the wealth of books dealing with Shetland. JAMES GOUDIE takes us on a tour of his own favourite Shetland books and suggests there is more where they came from. …

More…Books on the Shetland Isles

Margaret Atwood has described ALISTAIR MACLEOD as a wonderfully talented writer. His short stories, which have appeared in every English speaking country, and his novel No Great Mischief draw from the well of Scots-Canadian experience. In this archive interview, he speaks with Jennie Renton. …

More…Alistair MacLeod Interviewed

Poet SALLY EVANS discusses the pertinence of poetry and bookselling in the Scottish Highlands in this audio interview with Jennie Renton. As the last speaker at the Scottish Poetry Library Small Press Fair, she dismissed the doomsayers and placed emphasis on the vibrancy of the poetry scene. …

More…Strands of Strength

The bookshop at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh is run by MATTHEW WILLIAMS, whose taste endows it with a focused eclecticism that mass-market outlets inevitably lack. In this audio interview, he talks to Jennie Renton about his passion for bookselling. …

More…Bookseller by Affinity