Poem by Claire Askew. © Claire Askew

Poem by Claire Askew. © Claire Askew

Poem by Eddie Gibbons. © Eddie Gibbons

An eleven-year-old girl growing up faster than she knows is the central character in this short story by PATRICIA MCCAW, set in 1960s Belfast. …

More…Jumping the Moon

New fiction from Zimbabwean writer GABRIEL GIDI on the theme of broken promises and dreams. …

More…Theatre of Dreams

Life lived as polemic. That’s one way to see V.S. Naipaul, through the lens of Patrick French’s brilliant account of a writer whose identity has been forged in the struggle against stereotyping and yet who has sometimes seemed to provoke it. …

More…Naipaul Mapped

Dundee author ANDREW MURRAY SCOTT discusses his new novel, The Big J, and looks at the importance of a sense of place in his writing and the way fact lends depth to fiction. …

More…Fictional Memorials of the North-East

MURDO MACDONALD, Professor of the History of Scottish Art at Dundee University discusses Highland Art: A Window to the West with textualities.net editor Jennie Renton. …

More…Revisioning Highland Art

In a short story set in India, MARGARET BURNETT reveals the world through the eyes of a young Scottish girl. Both eager and reluctant to leave the security of home and childhood, Fiona finds herself poised on the brink of a new phase of life. …

More…Naini Tal

An entertainment from ANDREW GREIG inspired by and transgressing the ground rules of John Buchan’s thrillers, Romanno Bridge has Michael Lister contemplating dime novels and bad sex. …

More…In Darkest Peeblesdale

The patterns teachers carve into children’s souls, the Golden Section and a man who is turned on by symmetry – a new short story from SVETLANA LAVOCHKINA. …

More…The Golden Section

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. …

More…Not Even From Lewis, Mate

Robert Louis Abrahamson examines the cultural impact of DAVID DAICHES and looks at a new publication: David Daiches: A Celebration of His Life and Work. …

More…One of the Exceptions

The second-hand bookshop is the last haven of the individual and the eccentric. It may also be a danger to health and safety, a place where computers are sarcastic and serendipity lends a guiding hand, says HANNAH ADCOCK. …

More…A Shabby Habit

In this quest-tale by Maurice Dijon aka MIKE DILLON, a boy in a bucket does battle with an evil Baron. Jokes, asides and invented language abound. …

More…Boy in the Bucket