Book Week Scotland Stuff

I'm going to be at Grangemouth Library next Friday as part of Book Week Scotland. It's a school visit, essentially, but it's free so the teens can get there for free. If you're around, pop by and watch my iconic one-man show. Last time I was in Falkirk, it went terribly wrong. Apart from the…

Reasons Why Victoria Beckham OBE Is The Best Spice Girl

  Victoria Beckham was always my favourite Spice Girl. She was so mysterious she didn't care to sing her own song. She posed and pouted. She wore black. She was the Spice Girl who wasn't meant to succeed. Common sense told us that Geri was The One, and for a while her solo career seemed…

Three Record Labels And Some Records

Some people follow singers and bands, but it takes a special kind of obsessive to follow a record label. Small indie record labels were willed into existence as a result of major label complacency; they were a necessary presence, a revitalising shot in the limp arm of a dying, overblown music industry back in the…

I Wanted To Write About Robert Cormier

Some writers defy categorisation. They cannot be filed, stamped, or absorbed. Yes, you may find their books in certain areas of the book shop or the library, but essentially these writers remain difficult to anticipate, their work always surprising and interesting. I'd place Francesca Lia Block, Cory Doctorow, Sam Pink, Kathy Acker, Jason Starr, Jeff…

The Night Nu Metal Died…Or Did It?

Nu-Metal. Everyone hates and disdains it, but for teenagers hooked on S Club 7 or Steps, it was poppy enough to lure them away from the fake smiles and slick dance routines, and loud enough that it appealed to their burgeoning - some might say inevitable - rebellious streak. Just like other genres of music,…

The Best Doctor Who Story In The Universe Ever

Choosing which wire to clip on a ticking bomb is probably much easier than choosing a favourite episode of Doctor Who. There are literally decades worth of stories and episodes to choose from, all those different Doctors and their companions friends. You have the Era you grew up watching (for me The McCoy Era), then…

Review: Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto

A cult smash in Japan that inspired a movie of the same name, I stumbled on Kamikaze Girls whilst on a book buying spree at Blackwell's in Edinburgh. There was something cool about the cover art: the colours, the photography, the scrawled illustration. It all appealed, so I snatched it up and read it in…