Indelible Ink: Candia McWilliam’s ‘Debatable Land’
One of the never ending discussions about books is whether the meaning comes from the reader or the writer. Of course, the answer is both, but where the balance lies is constantly shifting, and often...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Helen FitzGerald’s ‘The Cry’
James Kelman once stated that real drama is to be found in ordinary people’s everyday lives, and certainly the same could be said about real horror. The supernatural and fantastic may give us a shock...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Iain Maloney’s ‘First Time Solo’
Scotland’s relationship with the rest of Britain hadn’t been as intensely discussed as it was last year since the Act of Union in1707. This was not only because of the Referendum, but also due to the...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Kei Miller’s ‘The Last Warner Woman’
The best novels are not simply great stories; the magic comes in the telling. Kei Miller’s 2010 novel ‘The Last Warner Woman’ is as much about storytelling as it is about the characters themselves....
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Chris Dolan’s ‘Redlegs’
Last year’s Commonwealth Games prompted a lot of discussion and debate about Scotland’s place in the Commonwealth, the creation of the British Empire, and, in turn, its role in the slave trade. Thanks...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Laura Hird’s ‘Born Free’
We have referenced the Chemical Generation of writers a few times on Indelible Ink, and featured the best of their work with Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’, Alan Warner’s ‘Morvern Callar’, Duncan...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Raymond Drennan’s ‘The Limits Of The World’
There has been a lot of discussion lately on the value we put on art and its importance culturally and socially. With arts funding being cut, subsidies withdrawn, and academic courses in art and...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Jane Alexander’s ‘The Last Treasure Hunt’
There are only a few novels which have dealt well with our age of celebrity, such as Brett Easton Ellis’s ‘Glamorama’, but there are hundreds of terrible novels written by celebrities, (‘A Mother’s...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Angus Peter Campbell’s ‘The Girl On The Ferryboat’
Some of Scotland’s greatest writers have been bilingual in English and Gaelic. In the last 100 years there have been glorious examples, from Sorley MacLean, through Iain Crichton Smith and Derick...
View ArticleIndelible Ink: Denise Mina’s Garnethill
Scottish crime fiction is generally held to be a helpful category to be filed under if you want to sell books. The term ‘Tartan Noir’ is one that many find grating, but it has undoubtedly helped raise...
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