NEWS
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ANNOUNCEMENTS, LINE-UPS AND OPINION
MERCURY AWARD A spotify playlist of all 12 Mercury Prize albums can be found at bit.ly/ mercurys2013
B O O K E R S H O R T L I S T A N N O U N C E D Canongate author Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being is just one of the novels shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize. The judges praised the global range of this year’s list, with NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names, Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, Jim Crace’s Harvest, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland and Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary also in the running for the prestigious literary prize. The winner, who will be awarded £50,000, is announced on Tue 15 Oct.
P E T S H O P B OYS F O R E D I N B U R G H ’S H O G M A N AY
Pop royalty Pet Shop Boys (pictured) will headline this year’s Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations. The band will perform their greatest hits alongside tracks from their 12th album, Electric, in West Princes Street Gardens. This year’s Hogmanay bash will also bring in the bells for the Year of Homecoming Scotland 2014, which includes a programme of events throughout the year. M E R C U RY S H O R T L I S T A N N O U N C E D The shortlist for the Mercury Music Award has been announced, and includes debuts from rising
star Jake Bugg, electro brothers Disclosure, sultry songstress Laura Mvula and all-female rockers Savages. It also features releases from more established acts, such as David Bowie, Foals and Arctic Monkeys. With AM, this will be Arctic Monkeys’ third Mercury Prize nomination and frontman Alex Turner’s fourth (his side project with Miles Kane, The Last Shadow Puppets, were nominated with The Age of the Understatement in 2008, but pipped to the post by Elbow’s The Seldom Seen Kid). Early favourite is electro siblings Disclosure for Settle, which went straight to Number 1 in the UK Albums Chart back in June. With 3/1 odds, theirs is the most hotly-tipped album to win, with Foals’ fourth release Holy Fire just slightly behind at 4/1 and David Bowie’s comeback record The Next Day at 9/2. The winner is announced on Wed 30 Oct.
T I N T I N TO S P E A K S C OT S And i nally, List HQ is rather charmed by the news that Tintin is embracing the Scots language. The Derk Isle (The Black Island) i nds Tintin and his dog Snowy (here called Tarrie) translated into the Scots tongue for this Scotland-set tale. Originally published in 1938, this version will be published by Taigh na Teud in Skye. See tintinscots.com for more.
R I P J O H N B E L L A N Y C B E The List is sad to report on the passing of the great Scottish artist John Bellany who has died, aged 71. One of
Scotland’s most prolii c painters, his most famous i gurative works depicted the realities of growing up in the i shing town of Port Seton. His paintings feature throughout the world, including at the National Galleries of Scotland which showcased a retrospective of his work last year to celebrate his 70th birthday.
PEGGY HUGHES REMEMBERS SEAMUS HEANEY
What to say at the passing of Seamus Heaney, Nobel Laureate, luminary and seer, a i gure dear to the imaginations and hearts of poetry lovers around the globe.
I could consider his poetry, but
there’s not enough room. A few favourites, even? Ditto, though my mind always l oats to ‘A Clip’ while at the barbers (‘Cold smooth creeping steel and snicking scissors’) and ‘Clearances III’ when peeling spuds (‘Like solder weeping off the soldering iron’). No: here’s my own small glad memory instead. He paid a visit to the Scottish Poetry Library while I worked there, and I was dispatched to collect him from Waverley. Can you even IMAGINE? In the taxi the conversation turned to accents, how I hadn’t lost mine, not a bit of it, to tell my mother that I sounded as Antrim as the day I left. One brief taxi ride gabbing away and you were made to feel like you’d been his pal for moons.
This literary superstar – who wore his incredible intellect lightly, who counted presidents and celebrities as devotees – was entirely himself, regardless of company or situation. Asked in an interview how he stayed sane given the huge demands on him, he replied by speaking of one brother who drove a furniture van and another who worked for the creamery. He said ‘they come with me wherever I go’. It’s nice to be important but important to be nice: Seamus Heaney was superlative at both. His profound body of work will continue to inspire generations, but I hope we might learn from his kindness, his humour and his humility too. It’s a heavy hurt to know our leading light is no longer with us in the world. But it’s a brighter world for having had him in it. ■ Peggy Hughes is the Programme Director at Dundee Literary Festival.
19 Sep–17 Oct 2013 THE LIST 11