Beaucoup Fish by Underworld

I tried so hard to get away from Trainspotting. It belonged to my brother, my sisters, their friends. Somehow, I felt it couldn't belong to me. I was at Cumbernauld High School, still trying to create myself, work out what I liked and what I didn't like. Now, here's the important detail: what I liked…

Deadlines and Diets

Chocolate makes my clothes shrink, or so I tell strangers whenever I want to draw attention to the fact I've put on a lot of weight. The thing is, I never minded how I looked. Outside a few little insecurities (snaggle teeth, size ten feet, and hairy hands) I felt fine about my appearance. Until…

Indie bookshops, this is for you!

Dear independent bookshops, No matter how listless I've felt, or how boring everything seemed, you were always there to make me happy. From The Scan Bookshop in Cumbernauld, Scotia Books in Kilsyth, Edinburgh Bookshop, and The Book Nook, you've all been there for me in different ways. Not all of you are here any more.…

Library Lurking in Scotland

I live in a strange area which I won't specifically mention because I'm still hiding from the debt collectors, but it feels very apart from everywhere else. The transit system is infrequent, with buses forgetting to pass by on their route, but when they come, they take me to Glasgow, Stirling, and Falkirk. All of…

The Path to Happiness

Most writers arrive fully-formed, their debut novel hailed as something special and original. That or they're just ignored and left to fend for themselves. The word ‘debut’ carries a special cache around the publishing industry. I started off performing live shows, writing my own stories, hoping to be published one day. Twilight was a huge…

Christmas Time, Irn-Bru and Wine

It was a day I'll never forget because it was when everything went from bad to terrible. The 12th December 2019. I was in Edinburgh with my friend Alex Nye, both of us suffering in the cold, but still excited to be seeing our old friends in the writing community. Our equivalent of an office…