Books

Liz MacWhirter on Lamorna Ash’s compelling exploration of Gen Z’s turn to religion

Which novel would you recommend to someone who had never read a word written in your country? The first stop on our tour is Scotland, where Alan Warner highlights James Kelman’s astonishing Kieron Smith, boy

Which one novel would you recommend to represent your country’s literature? The next stop on our tour is Turkey, where Ayla Douglas champions Sabahattin Ali’s modern classic Madonna in a Fur Coat

The rise of tartan noir was a key part of Glasgow’s cultural revival. But Scottish crime writing betrays a fatal smugness, says Kenneth Wright

Lilly Markaki on why Hilton Als’s White Girls still matters

By Amy Jardine

From Bram E. Gieben’s scattergun philosophical essays to Carina Contini’s rich celebration of Scottish Italian culture,  Alistair Braidwood sifts through the year’s most compelling titles

Shirley Jackson’s subversive horror story The Lottery remains as pertinent today as when it first appeared seventy years ago, writes Sibylla Kalid

Sifting through a new history of the Hollywood blacklists Kenneth Wright recalls a time of violence and treachery with unintended lessons for today’s film makers

Alistair Braidwood is charmed by the story of Scotland’s innovative post punk outsiders

Alistair Braidwood admires this thrilling, thorough take on a golden age of Scottish music

A series of  health scares helped Kirsti Wishart reassess her judgment of others and find the road back to writing

By Jean Findlay

The top reads on Product this week

Sue Palmer hails Jonathan Haidt’s timely look at the explosion in smart phone addiction amongst children

Sally Huband lives in the Shetland Islands and is the author of Sea Bean.  A recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, she holds a PhD in ecology and anthropology from the University of Edinburgh

From Rebecca Smith’s enthralling memoir to Michel Faber’s love letter to music, Alistair Braidwood sifts through the year’s most compelling titles

Alistair Braidwood salutes Michel Faber’s ambitious take on how music affects us at the deepest level

Malachy Tallack is the author of four award winning books. His latest, Illuminated by Water, was shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies prize for nature writing in 2022

Emma Brankin is a writer and educator from Glasgow. Her new collection of short stories, Attention Seekers, has just been published

Alistair Braidwood on the finest non-fiction books of 2022

Jude Rogers’ remarkable book captures the unique power of music to heal and inspire, writes Alistair Braidwood

Alistair Braidwood enjoys getting lost in Seacrest, the fictional town of scheming cineastes in Kirsti Wishart’s latest book The Projectionist

Writer Jenni Fagan discusses her new book Hex, witchcraft and the problem with magical realism

Alistair Braidwood admires a fresh look at how Simple Minds created their early innovations

In the second instalment of our interview, author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímíde answers readers’ questions about institutional racism, structuring, sobriety and solitude

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímíde wrote one of the standout books of 2021. She fields readers’ questions on craft, dyslexia, diversity and how to find your confidence as a writer

Author Catherine Simpson’s remarkable work ranges across short stories, fiction and memoir. She discusses Alan Bennett, grabbing writing  time and why details matter

The Broken Pane, Charlie Roy’s harrowing but uplifting debut examines loss, tragedy and our relationship with the past. Here she discusses creative process and how she grew from wistful scribbler to published author

Bobby Gillespie’s sharp memoir vividly recounts the rise of a driven musical obsessive, writes Alistair Braidwood

Graeme Macrae Burnet’s latest multi-layered mystery combines great wit and invention, writes Alistair Braidwood

A uniquely talented writer of short stories, novels and poetry, Anne Leigh Parrish opens up about owls, Monet and the art of precision

Andrei Semenev enjoys an expansive study of Russia’s courageous and complex opposition leader

From Rapper’s Delight to Fight The Power, Dylan Jones salvages the maligned 1980s in ten tracks, writes Alistair Braidwood

The inspiring story of Preston’s rebirth highlights some telling lessons and limits of localism, writes James Foley

It’s time to protect books and those who create them, writes Jean Findlay

By puppeteer and children’s author Tania Czajka

Katherine Hill’s timely book offers parents practical advice to help children negotiate the digital world, writes Alex Borthwick

Alistair Braidwood who worked as a secretary for Alasdair Gray, and was an editor on ‘Of Me & Others’, pays tribute to a brilliant, kind and peerless polymath

Alan McCredie on a truly timeless classic

Petra Reid on a radical ’60s classic still relevant today

The highly lauded Nell Zink is one of many US writers considering the challenges of activism today, but her work lacks one vital element, writes Sibylla Kalid

A former UK ambassador to the EU lays out the clusterfuck that follows a retreat from reality, writes Ronnie McCluskey

Shoshana Zuboff’s treatise “Surveillance Capitalism” warns how big data commodifies us all, writes Nik Williams

Sceptical of the form, Sara Lally is won over by three of 2018’s most intriguing graphic novels

Author Mick Kitson tells Sibylla Archdale Khalid how he conjured Sal, one of the most compelling literary characters of 2018

Brilliant and uncompromising, Doris Lessing inspired Amy Jardine to conquer fear, start writing and live a fuller life

If you could only recommend one novel from your country, which would it be? Ana Iliescu salutes Mircea Cartarescu’s Orbitor, a triumph of Romanian literature

Daisy Johnson talks to Naomi Richards about the power of myths, metamorphis and the art of writing her new novel.

Bill Hicks has been derided as an anti-corporate fanatic, UFO devotee and gun fetishist. But what he would really have hated is being described as the lost saviour of stand-up, writes Allan Brown

Sam Knee talks to Neil Cooper about Untypical Girls, his new book about pioneering all-female bands from post punk to riot grrrl

Did the former Stoke MP lift sections of a long ago OU book for his 2004 historical tome? One of the original authors Chris Harvie finds it oddly familiar

The creators of Britain’s first counter cultural paper talk to Neil Cooper about their new visual catalogue of the ’60s radical underground press

Author Malcolm Devlin discusses fairy tales, genre-jumping and placating restless stories with Naomi Richards

Alistair Braidwood is charmed by a book of recollections from Bowie fans and collaborators

 A spellbinding collection of short stories is Naomi Richards’ Book of the Year

As her new collection of short stories is launched, Meaghan Delahunt talks to Naomi Richards about the art of writing

Lilly Markaki on Agamben’s timely warnings about state power and perpetual war

Robin McAlpine’s latest book urges Scottish independence campaigners to grab the initiative and win the big arguments, writes Paddy Bort

A beginners’ guide to Ron Butlin’s fiction. By Alistair Braidwood

Stuart Cosgrove’s latest is an eloquent mix of social history and musical retrospective, writes Alistair Braidwood

Common Weal’s Book of Ideas offers a wealth of inspiration for Holyrood policy making, writes Paddy Bort

Kirstin Innes discusses Fishnet, its follow-up and the art of writing with Naomi Richards

Andrea Needham’s lucid book celebrates an audacious direct action against the arms trade, writes Paul Rogers

Heathcote Williams has a fearsome back catalogue spanning five decades as an activist, writer and poet. His latest works are typically acute, essential polemics, writes Neil Cooper

Two very different books on Scotland’s post-indyref options are united by a glaring omission, says Paddy Bort

As Billy Bragg releases a new book of lyrics Alistair Braidwood assesses the career of Britain’s finest political songwriter

In the first of a series of interviews with contemporary American writers, Lisa Locascio meets Francine Prose

Alistair Braidwood enjoys exquisite storytelling from a self-effacing writer who covered every major music event of the last 40 years

Part 2: Lisa Locascio talks to author Judith Freeman about writing, madness and the creative spark.