First published by Northwords Now. Anthologies and competitions celebrating and encouraging Scottish writers may not be rare these days, but they nevertheless have a habit of, at best, blazing like fireworks for a short few years and then vanishing. It’s therefore a genuine achievement that the 30th annual New Writing Scotland anthology will be published next […]
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Pack Men, by Alan Bissett
Originally published in Scotland on Sunday, 18 September 2011. While Jerome K Jerome’s fictionalised travelogue about three male friends (and a dog) journeying along the Thames has been in print constantly since 1889, it’s now largely forgotten how the literary establishment of the day condemned it as vulgar (in all senses of the word) and […]
You’ve Got To Laugh!
Paul F Cockburn asks if there’s such a thing as ‘disability comedy’ and whether disabled comedians still face unsurmountable barriers to a professional career. Can disability be funny? Given all the stress and strains that disabled people face every day — thanks to inaccessible buildings, unreliable support services and genuine hostility — you might think […]
Sergio Casci interview
He’s written award-winning films and numerous episodes of BBC Scotland ‘soap’ River City? As his third film, horror thriller The Caller, has its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Glasgow-born Sergio Casci sat down for a chat with Paul F Cockburn. Paul F Cockburn: What’s The Caller about? Sergio Casci: The Caller […]
Yati Durant on the Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra
This Friday (20 May) sees the public debut of a new orchestra, one that aims to bring a decidedly diverse range of film music old and new to hopefully appreciative audiences. Paul F Cockburn speaks with Yati Durant, founder, musical director and conductor of the Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra. Paul F Cockburn: When it comes to […]
The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan
Originally published in Scotland on Sunday, 1 May 2011. Jake Marlowe is a werewolf. In fact, when we first meet him, he’s just learned that he’s officially the last werewolf on the planet, thanks to both the genocidal work of the World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena (WOCOP) and the mysterious fact that, […]
Glen Duncan interview
First published in The Skinny (April 2011). Several years ago, Bolton born author Glen Duncan was named by The Times Literary Supplement as one of the UK’s twenty best young novelists. Yet, seven novels into his career, the literary establishment still isn’t entirely sure what to make of him; kindly, he’s been described as ‘an […]
