Confined to barracks during the pandemic of 2020 many people have found time for reading in a way not possible in their normally frenetic lives. ( Research finds reading books has surged in lockdown | Fiction | The Guardian ). At the same time, community services have come to be valued during this stressful past […]
Public library and other stories by Ali Smith Read More »
It looks like we’re headed for a long series of mini lockdowns and complex restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Combine that with the joys of the Scottish winter, and many will seek an escape into fiction. Any other world might seem preferable to this. Diane Cook (https://dianemariecook.com/) offers such an escape. Cook’s writing has appeared
The New Wilderness by Diane Cook Read More »
At the start of July 2020 we have enjoyed one hundred days of lockdown in Britain. This has been ample time in which to fail to re-assess our priorities in life. Already we’re urged to get out and spend, spend in order to re-ignite the big engines of the economy. Economic development, population growth, material
The Usefulness of the Useless by Nuccio Ordine Read More »
02 June 2020. There has been a lot of crying recently. The pandemic of 2020 has released a flood of emotion. Many TV viewers also, during the lockdown in April and May, have admitted to weeping over the BBC Three drama ‘Normal People‘ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p089g8rs/normal-people) The memory of having being young once, in love, and the
Weeping Britannia by Thomas Dixon Read More »
It’s 25th May 2020 and we’re into a tenth week of lockdown confinement in Scotland, attempting to slow down the spread of Covid-19. The natural world, meanwhile, is indifferent to human trauma and is as lively this Springtime as any. One is minded of the fecundity referenced in Genesis 8:17 ‘Bring forth with thee every
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey Read More »
4th April 2020. We’re in the midst of the gravest health emergency any of us can remember. Hospitals around the world are filling up with people dying of the disease Covid-19. The UK economy has effectively been placed in a coma. To get an understanding of this contagion forget the conspiracy theories with which the
Plague’s Progress by Arno Karlen Read More »
Perhaps an uplifting novel would be suitable for the day we enter the calendar Spring 2020. Reach for The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty. (https://www.lauramoriartynovels.com/) Moriarty was born in Honolulu in 1970. She took a degree in social work, earned an MA in Creative Writing at The University of Kansas before becoming the recipient of the
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty Read More »
Bill Bryson ( https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/101/1017933/bill-bryson.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson) is a well known and loved author in the UK. Born and brought up in Des Moines, Iowa, Bryson has made England his home for most of his adult life. He came to prominence in the UK with the publication of Notes from a Small Island (1995), an affectionate but satirically
The Body by Bill Bryson Read More »
Widespread rejoicing at the magnificent Tory landslide on 12th December 2019 has scarcely abated in Clydesdale during these last few days before Christmas. Epic drinking, feasting and splurges of spending have been bacchanalian. Champagne corks could be heard popping wildly in all the douce villages squatting like frogs around the foot of Tinto. Life can
Decline and Fail by John Crace Read More »
