SRoB Blog

(photo credit: Chris Scott)

Kirsty Logan, Anikó Szilágyi, Martin Reiner, Peggy Hughes

The first thing that is astonishing about this book is that it made me think that I understand astronomy, which is clearly not the case.   That, in itself, is a tribute to the clarity and assurance of the writing.   But this is a story about much more than astronomy, or rather where astronomy is a motor of the plot.   Jeanette is an astronomer, or rather, she becomes one because she comes to love the solitude that staring at the stars requires.   This is a story about someone growing up, and becoming the person that she is.

Jeanette grows up in an ordinary family where her sister Kate is the star.   Family life revolves, as far as Jeanette is concerned, around her sister Kate, and her swimming ambitions.   Jeanette loves her sister, but is determined not to be like her sister, which is what drives her interest in the skies, and what can be seen in them.

Caesura organiser Graeme Smith 

(photo credit: George Anderson)

Anais Hendricks is the fifteen year old protagonist in Jenni Fagan’s debut novel. Anais is not the only name she has had, but it is the one she currently goes by. It was given to her by her prostitute foster mother and reinforces her dream of living in Paris where, like Anais Nin, she would adopt a bohemian lifestyle.

Paraphrasing Diderot, the late polemicist Christopher Hitchens once warned that he would “go on keeping score” about the refusal of some countries to participate in the US-led invasion of Iraq “until the last phoney pacifist has been strangled with the entrails of the last suicide-murderer”. Among the “phony pacifists”to whom Hitchens referred were a number of his former friends on the Left, now, in his eyes, as a result of their opposition to the Bush administration's “War on Terror”, apologists for authoritarianism and theocracy in the Middle East. Hitchens' post-9/11 conversion from socialism to neo-conservatism was indicative of a broader split in the Western liberal commentariat, occurring at the start of the 21st Century, over the use of American military power to 'promote democracy abroad'.

In the US, where Hitchens lived and worked, the anti-interventionist Nation magazine squared off against the interventionist Atlantic Monthly. In Britain, pro-war journalists such as David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen went up against the Independent and the New Statesman. Perhaps the most vocal opponent of American militarism in the mainstream British press was the Guardian. Indeed, due in no small part to the efforts of its comment editor, Seamus Milne, the Guardian's opinion pages became a leading international forum for criticism of British and American policy. Milne himself, in his weekly Guardian columns, led much of that criticism and was even personally admonished by Tony Blair's government when, following the fall of Kabul to NATO forces in late 2001, it prematurely declared the Afghan war a success.

It’s appropriate for Frank Kuppner’s chronicle of life that it would be both a study of the absurd and the absolute, for these are the two areas which Kuppner truly brings to life.

Robin Robertson, StAnza 2013

Scottish Poetry Library and Aye Write! join forces

The Friday Gospels, Jenn Ashworth. Sceptre: £17.99

The Future, Al Gore (WH Allen £25)

Eight years ago someone asked Al Gore ‘What are the drivers of global change?’ He listed what he calls ‘the usual suspects’ but subsequently decided that the question deserved closer attention than he had given it. The Future is his considered response and at 558 pages including 154 pages of endnotes, nobody can say he hasn’t put in the time.

Review by Alan Gillespie

James Robertson’s short story collection ‘Republics of the Mind’ presents an eclectic ragbag of voices that are unexpected, unheralded and unhinged. With a shamelessly Scottish outlook, Robertson’s writing delves into the relationships we have with society, with each other and with ourselves. This is an unflashy collection, built on neither sex nor gratuitous violence, but rather a careful and honest portrayal of the way peoples’ minds work when faced with the awkward and uncomfortable truths that daily life brings.

Kirsty Logan, Paul McQuade, Carole Jones, Zöe Strachan, George Anderson 

Event Review: Kin, Summerhall 09/02/2013

Lesley Duncan and Alan Riach (eds), The Smeddum Test, 21^st Century Poems in Scots: The McCash Anthology 2003-2012 (Kennedy & Boyd £12.95)

The Glasgow University McCash endowment established an annual Scots poetry competition in 1973 and this anthology showcases some of the best entries from the last ten years. In some of those years a theme was set. In 2012 it was Thomas Campbell’s ‘The Pleasures of Hope’.

The Eejit Pit by Jenny Lindsay; The Glassblower Dances by Rachel McCrum; Treasure in the History of Things by Katherine McMahon

Stewed Rhubarbis a small Edinburgh publisher founded by Rachel McCrum and James T Harding which specialises in publishing spoken word artists and in collaborating to create beautiful poetry objects. These three short pamphlets are the first fruits of this outfit, and very beautiful objects they are too, printed on good quality paper, and with sturdy and beautifully designed covers. Treasure in the History of Things even comes with a cd of the artist reading her poems, with music and atmospheric sounds - a very good move, reminding us that performance poetry is not the same as a reading from page poems, but a genre in its own right, with its own demands and excellences.

I grew up in Scotland and I’m a poetry buff, so it was about time I attended StAnza. Five years ago a reform of secondary school education in Demark made it easier for me to attend the event, as I was granted five days’ holiday a year whenever I chose. However, turbulence in my professional life (the reform wasn’t only about me being granted five days’ holiday) as well as in my personal life (I was forced out of my home of 16 years by an abusive neighbour) meant that I was preoccupied with other things. After StAnza 2010 was over, however, I was sent the programme by my sister, who lives just outside St. Andrews, and I took that as an invitation.

In the event, my Principal regards my attendance as being work-related, so in addition to my five days’ holiday he has granted me two days’ paid leave of absence. This means I can go over to Scotland the weekend before the event, attend it until it finishes on the Sunday evening, and catch a cheap flight back from Edinburgh on the Tuesday morning.

Read David Greig's 'Victoria Leaving' here

Britain’s Last Frontier: A Journey Along the Highland Line, Alistair Moffat (Birlinn £17.99)

Alistair Moffat’s latest idea is to imagine his way along the Highland Line, exploring history, geography, geology, language and culture as he goes. It is a meander on both sides of the line and across disciplines and time. Unfortunately, an introduction by James Naughtie is not a particularly helpful send off. He seems more concerned with making the case for North East Scotland’s exceptionalism (his own village in particular) than setting up Moffat’s potentially fascinating quest.

Orkney, Amy Sackville. Granta: £12.99

There’s something sweet and sad about ill-fated love affairs. Such is the premise of Orkney, the second novel of John Llewellyn Rhys prize winner Amy Sackville, who also penned The Still Point. A university professor and his ex-student elope after a year of secret encounters. The young but bizarrely white-haired bride and her older groom head to her birthplace on Orkney. While on honeymoon, the couple become affected by the girl’s personal issues: memories of her sea-faring father who abandoned her and the girl’s own obsession with the ocean, even though she can’t swim.

Cailean Gallagher wrote a fine article last year in the Scottish Review about Alasdair Gray, socialism and public libraries. I suspect that few readers and not many writers understand how rapidly our libraries are changing, and the threat that these changes bring.

Let’s start with the basics. Our libraries contain books that have been written by writers, and those writers give their permission for libraries to lend their books, free of charge, to their members. This system is known as Public Lending Right (PLR), and the writers are paid a small amount in compensation for allowing their work to be loaned in this way. I don’t know what the average payment is to writers in the UK, but it is very small, and it is under serious attack from the UK government.