BOOKS | Events Thursday 25
Glasgow FREE Sick Sick Sick: The Books of Ornery Women CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 6.30pm. A reading group to get into the nitty gritty of the online Alt-Lit scene. Edinburgh FREE Be the First to Like This: New Scottish Poetry Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6.30pm. An anthology of the new generation of poets in Scotland.
Friday 26
Wigtown ✽ Wigtown Book Festival Various Venues, 01988 403222. Times
vary. Prices vary. Until Sun 5 Oct. See preview, page 45.
Saturday 27 Edinburgh FREE Kellan MacInnes: Caleb’s List Stockbridge Library, 11 Hamilton Place, 529 5665. 1.30–2.30pm. Meet the author who climbed the 20 mountains visible from Arthur’s Seat. FREE Donald Smith: John Knox’s 500 Years Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43–45 High Street, 556 9579. 2pm. Donald Smith examines Knox’s legacy 500 years after his birth.
Sunday 28 Edinburgh FREE Golden Hare Book Group Golden Hare, 102 West Bow, 629 1396. 6.30–8pm. Monthly book group.
Monday 29
Glasgow FREE Scots / English Writing Group Scottish Writers’ Centre, CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7pm. A group offering critique of its members’ submitted works. Ages 16+. Edinburgh Stephen Fry Live Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 13–29 Nicolson Street, 529 6000. 7.30pm. £29.50. Stephen Fry launches his new volume of memoirs.
Tuesday 30
Glasgow In Process with Jackie Kay CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7–8.30pm. £6 (£3; swc members free). The writer discusses her writing career. Edinburgh SPL Poetry Workshop Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6pm. £5 (£4). Suitable for writers at any stage. FREE Edinburgh Sci-Fi Book Group Henderson’s Vegetarian Restaurant, 94 Hanover Street, 225 2131. 7–8pm. Members pick the books up for discussion.
Wednesday 1
Glasgow FREE Next Generation of Poets Mitchell Library, North Street, 287 2999. 6–7pm. Two of the Next Generation. Edinburgh New Edinburgh Writers Fountainbridge Library, 137 Dundee Street, 529 5616. 6–8pm. £0.50. Complete writing exercises and read new material at this weekly meeting.
Thursday 2
Glasgow Indoor Poetry Picnic Glasgow Women’s Library, 23 Landressy Street, 550 2267. 12.30–2pm. Chow down as you hear some work from female poets. 48 THE LIST 18 Sep–16 Oct 2014
Tuesday 7
Edinburgh FREE Edinburgh All-Comers Writers Club Sofi’s, 65 Henderson Street, 555 7019. 7–10pm. See Sat 20. Wednesday 8
Glasgow Poetry@The Ivory Ivory Hotel, Langside Avenue Shawlands, 636 0223. 7.15–9.30pm. £2–£3. Poetry event with guest readers, some musicians and open mic. Edinburgh New Edinburgh Writers Fountainbridge Library, 137 Dundee St, 529 5616. 6–8pm. £0.50. See Wed 1.
Thursday 9
Edinburgh ✽ FREE Aidan Moffat: The Lavender Blue Dress Waterstones
West End, 128 Princes Street, 226 2666. 12.30pm. Moffat signs his new book.
Friday 10
Glasgow ✽ FREE Aidan Moffat: The Lavender Blue Dress
Waterstones, 174 Argyle Street, 248 4814. 7–8.30pm. See Thu 9.
Saturday 11
Glasgow ✽ FREE Aidan Moffat: The Lavender Blue Dress
Waterstones, 174 Argyle Street, 248 4814. 2–2.30pm. See Thu 9.
Sunday 12
Edinburgh Luminate Poetry Slam Ghillie Dhu, 2 Rutland Place, 228 1404. 7.30pm–10.30am. £4 (£3). Slam poetry night presented by Inky Fingers and Age Scotland.
✽ The Pleasance Sessions: Neu! Reekie! Presents . . . The Pleasance, 60 Pleasance, 650 4673. 8pm. £6.95–£9.94. Neu! Reekie! presents Dave Hook, Liz Lochhead, Richard Jobson, Teen Canteen and FiniTribe (theatre). Part of Pleasance Sessions.
Monday 13
Glasgow FREE Scots / English Writing Group Scottish Writers’ Centre, CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7pm. See Mon 29. Edinburgh FREE Blind Poetics Blind Poet, 32c West Nicolson Street, 667 4268. 8pm. Free monthly night of spoken word and poetry.
Tuesday 14
Glasgow ✽ Kirsty Logan and Friends CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7pm. £6 (£3). Author Kirsty Logan is joined by Hal Duncan, Elizabeth Reeder and Katherine McMahon.
Wednesday 15 Edinburgh New Edinburgh Writers Fountainbridge Library, 137 Dundee St, 529 5616. 6–8pm. £0.50. See Wed 1.
Thursday 16
Edinburgh Late Ripeness: Poems about Memory and Ageing Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6.30pm. £5 (£4). Ken Cockburn and Lorna Irvine present a programme of poets in their older age.
ESTHER FREUD
‘I don’t think I can have a cogent thought without it coming out through my fingers,’ jokes Esther Freud, wrapping said fingers around a cup of herbal tea. The author is in a tent at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, explaining her borderline compulsive desire to create. ‘I always knew I wanted a life where I was making something. It
could have been sewing or farming – the important bit was to make something with my hands. Writing is just what I knew. Sometimes I know what I’m saying only when I write it down. So it makes sense to make a book out of all the things that interest me.’ So when Freud heard that the artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh once spent a year in the Suffolk village where she now lives, got wrapped up in local rumours, and was eventually wrongly imprisoned for being a German spy, naturally, it blossomed into a novel.
‘I knew he’d spent time there [in Walberswick] – the gift shop is full of postcards by him and his wife Margaret Macdonald. But when I heard he briefly slept in my house, I had to do more research.’
After several trips to Glasgow’s School of Art, House for an Art
Lover and ‘every possible building I could find that he was connected with’, Freud, whose previous novels include Hideous Kinky and Lucky Break, became more fascinated by Mackintosh. Her eighth novel, Mr Mac and Me, is ‘part sea story and part ghost story’, based around a fictional friendship she imagines between Mackintosh and a young boy Thomas, who loves watching the artist at work. ‘Watching someone’s artistic manner, in a mystified manner – I guess I do know that. I used to stand and watch dad [the artist Lucian Freud]. Watching in frustration as someone scrubs something out ferociously, or trashes stuff that looked perfectly OK to me – Mackintosh certainly shared that perfectionism.’ (Claire Sawers ) ■ Esther Freud’s Mr Mac and Me is out now from Bloomsbury.
FREE Magnus Florin: The Garden – Changelings 5 Launch Waterstones, 174 Argyle Street, 248 4814. 7–8.30pm. Novel launch. Poetry Showcase CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7pm. £5. Alexander Hutchison and Lesley Duncan talk about poetry written during WWI.
Edinburgh Michael Longley: Remembering War National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge, 623 3734. 6.30pm. £7 (£5). Michael Longley and Robyn Marsack read and talk about war poetry.
✽ David Nicholls: Us George Square Lecture Theatre, George
Square, 0330 333 6898. 7.30–9pm. £12 (£10). The One Day author reads from his brand new book.
Saturday 4
Life Lines: Intergenerational LGBT and Storytelling Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43–45 High Street, 556 9579. 5pm. £3 (£2). Poetry and storytelling from LGBT people. Isle of Islay Islay Book Festival Port Ellen Primary School, Lennox Street Port Ellen, islaybookfestival.com Times vary. Prices vary. Runs until Sun 5 Oct. Celebrate Scotland’s love of crime thrillers, quirky and challenging books.
Monday 6 Glasgow FREE Gaelic Writing Group Scottish Writers’ Centre, CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7pm. See Mon 22.
Edinburgh FREE Double Bill Anthology Launch Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 1pm. Editor Andy Jackson’s sequel to Split Screen is launched. Edinburgh Edinburgh Creative Writers’ Club Monboddo Bar, Point Hotel, 34 Bread Street, 221 5555. 7–9.30pm. A club for creative writers of all shades and stripes.