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Events
Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least ten days before publication to suzanne.black@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Suzanne Black.
Thursday 29
Glasgow FREE Three Mexican Poets CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7pm. Coral Bracho, David Huerta and Victor Teran and their translators get together in an event organised by the Scottish Writers’ Centre, St Mungo’s Mirrorball and the Poetry Translation Centre for an event to mark the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Edinburgh FREE Continuity and Change in Ideas of Nationhood in Scotland Blackwell, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6.15pm. Three of Scotland’s experts on Scottish history get together to discuss their forthcoming titles with Blackwell and Edinburgh University Press: Ewen A Cameron’s Impaled Upon a Thistle and James E Fraser and Roger Mason’s From Caledonia to Pictland.
Stirling Alistair Urquhart Macrobert, University of Stirling, 01786 466666. 7.30pm. £5. Hear about The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East, in which Alistair Urquhart tells of his inspiring survival after being made a Prisoner of War.
Friday 30
Glasgow FREE Café Littéraires Alliance Française de Glasgow, 3 Park Circus, 339 4281. 2.30pm. French book group. Edinburgh Guid Crack Club Waverly Bar, St Mary’s Street, 556 9579. 7.30pm. £3 suggested donation. Edinburgh’s monthly storytelling club welcomes all to listen or contribute to the spinning of yarns. A delightful evening of words and song.
Campbeltown FREE Giving Voice to the Mesolithic Campbeltown Museum, Hall Street, 01586 559000. 7pm. Margaret Elphinstone introduces her new novel, The Gathering Night. Part of Show Scotland.
produce with Margaret Elphinstone, author of The Gathering Night, on hand for literary conversation. Part of Show Scotland. Sunday 2
Glasgow ✽✽ Words Per Minute Creation Studios, 16 Trongate. 4pm. £2. Ewan Morrison, Lisa Foad, Miaoux Miaoux and Colin Begg perform at this brand new monthly spoken word, music, film and performance night run by Glasgow-based writer-performers Anneliese Mackintosh and Kirstin Innes. See www.wordsperminute.org.uk
Monday 3
Glasgow Creative Writing Class Charlie Reid Centre, 19 Elmbank St, 6pm. £6.50 (block of six £30). A series of workshops entitled ‘Discover the Writer Within’. Booking essential on 07960 823712 or email prism.atic@virgin.net Edinburgh New Books Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6pm. £5 (£3). Lilias Fraser introduces the library’s newest acquisitions.
Tuesday 4
Edinburgh FREE Philippa Perry Blackwell, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6.30pm. Perry gets on the psychoanalyst’s couch for graphic novel Couch Fiction. Wednesday 5
Edinburgh FREE Getting Started at NLS National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, 623 3918. 11am. Find out how to register, seek out specific books and peek inside the Reading Rooms, then enjoy a lifetime of reading books for free. FREE Stuart MacBride Blackwell, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6.30pm. Popular Aberdeen author Stuart MacBride launches his novel, Dark Blood.
Thursday 6
Glasgow ✽✽ FREE Alex Gray Waterstone’s, 153–157 Sauchiehall Street, 332
9105. 6.30pm. The writer of crime thrillers and creator of DI Lorimer (often described as a Glaswegian version of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus) talks about her newest novel, Five Ways to Kill a Man.
Saturday 1 Friday 7
Edinburgh FREE Pat Stanton Waterstone’s, 98/9 Ocean Terminal, Ocean Drive, Leith, 554 7732. 12.30pm. Meet Pat Stanton for the release of Pat Stanton’s Hibernian Dream Team. Poetry Translation Centre: Mexican Poetry Tour Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 2pm. £5 (£3). See Thu 29. Alloway Beauty and the Bard Burns Cottage, 0844 493 2601. 7.15pm. £2. Learn about Robert Burns’ women in this promenade theatre piece. Part of Show Scotland.
Kilmartin Literary Dinner Kilmartin House Museum, 01546 510278. 7pm. £30. A dinner using locally sourced Scottish
Check out the GreatOffers on page 6
Glasgow Reading the Leaves Tchai Ovna, 42 Otago Lane, 357 4524. 8pm. £2. Poetry and storytelling evening. Sunday 9
Edinburgh ✽✽ FREE Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne National
Gallery Complex, The Mound, 624 6200. 2pm. The Children’s Laureate and first ever British illustrator to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award visits the National Galleries for some artistic fun and games. Ages 5+. Children must be supervised. FREE Book Group Waterstone’s, Cameron Toll Shopping Centre, 6 Lady Road, 666 1866. 5pm. A regular book group meeting on the last Sunday of every month. To join in with the discussion of The Group by Mary McCarthy please contact the branch for more information.
✽✽ Malcolm Gladwell Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street, 529
6000. £17.50. Journalist and writer Malcolm Gladwell, who has authored the books Outliers, Blink and The Tipping Point, brings his mix of live storytelling
Events Books
Anthony Browne As a boy, the current children’s laureate longed for a real trumpet as a birthday present, but
was given a plastic one instead. His breakthrough book from 1983, Gorilla, is based on that experience. Ironically, he once presented a kids’ TV programme from within a cage of gorillas, one of whom bit him on the leg. Here, he monkeys around with the kids in an interactive event followed by a book signing. ■ National Gallery Complex, Edinburgh, Sun 9 May.
and intuitive thinking to town for the release of What the Dog Saw. See feature, page 26.
Monday 10
Glasgow Creative Writing Class Charlie Reid Centre, 19 Elmbank St, 6pm. £6.50 (block of six £30). See Mon 3. Edinburgh FREE Blackwell Book Quiz Blackwell, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6pm. Test your literary credentials in teams of up to five members.
Tuesday 11
Glasgow Conversation Pieces: Maggie O’Farrell Royal Concert Hall, 2 Sauchiehall Street, 353 8000. 1pm. £6 (£5 in advance). A conversation with the author of After You’d Gone, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and now The Hand That First Held Mine.
Wednesday 12 Edinburgh FREE Lesley Glaister Word Power Bookshop, 43 West Nicolson Street, 662 9112. 6pm. Family secrets and the insidious influence of a religious cult are the topics of Glaister’s modern gothic Chosen.
FREE Word LGBT Centre for Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street, 523 1100. 7pm. Women’s book group held monthly at the centre. FREE Alan Riach and Sandy Moffat The Henderson Gallery, 4 Thistle Street Lane NW, 225 4326. 7pm. Riach and Moffat’s book, Arts of Resistance, looks at the connection between arts and political culture in Scotland. Storytelling Café Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43–45 High Street, 556 9579. 7pm. £4. Storytelling, music and song in a relaxed café atmosphere. Chase Twichell Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 7.30pm. £5 (£3). Chase Twichell talks about her new book, Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been: New & Selected Poems with Robyn Marsack. Maggie O’Farrell Eric Liddell Centre, 15 Morningside Road, 229 9207. 7.30pm. £5 (redeemable against purchase). See Tue 11.
Thursday 13
Edinburgh Nothing but the Poem Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6pm. £5 (£3). Removing the pressures of review, criticism and hype, and without relying on background knowledge, this gentle reading group facilitated by Ryan Van Winkle focuses on the reader’s response to the text. 29 Apr–13 May 2010 THE LIST 33