Many of your previous novels have been grounded in decidedly rural environments, or have been set within relatively small villages or towns; so what inspired you to write a novel set in—and, in a sense, very much about—a conurbation as large and varied as London? I realised that I’d been orbiting it all my life, […]
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Tim Armstrong Interview
“I really believe that in the post-modern, 21st century world, it’s very hard for a minority language to stay vital without a vital literary scene—and specifically without science fiction.” During this year’s Aye Write! Book Festival in Glasgow, I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Armstrong, a Seattle-born, Skye-based academic and author who has […]
Cramond Island
It’s fair to say that, growing up in the western suburbs of Edinburgh, I didn’t have much experience of Scotland’s numerous islands. The nearest thing was located about a mile off the southern shore of the Firth of Forth by the picturesque Edinburgh village of Cramond. This somewhat tumbledown island still has a certain appeal, […]
Medieval Big Bang
“The idea of an expanding Universe is not a recent one, says Paul F Cockburn: a 13th century English bishop got there first…” Discover how the roots of modern cosmology can be traced back to a 13th century bishop, in my article for the March issue of BBC Sky at Night magazine. Details of the […]
In an Alien Landscape
The artistic imperative is possibly the most distinctive aspect of what makes us human, but centuries of seeking the source of our innate need to express how we experience the world, remains unclear; and surely no more so than in the exceedingly rare Sudden Artistic Output Syndrome—so exceptional an occurrence, it hasn’t even got its […]
How The Scotsman used to be a very different newspaper
If “the days of our years” are indeed “threescore years and ten,” then 1978 is just half a Biblical lifetime ago; and yet, while recently looking back at editions of The Scotsman from that year (while researching another article) I was often struck by just how distant a world it actually seemed. A place in […]
World Space Week 2012
Last October, an amazing parade took place in Enayetpur, some 80-odd miles northwest of Dhaka, Bangladesh. “The kids were carrying model rockets and fantastic colourful Space Week banners,” remembers Robert Hill, Director of the Northern Ireland Space Office, who was among the massive crowd. “There were more than a thousand people walking through the streets […]
