Book Week Scotland 2018

Book Week Scotland is to authors what Christmas is to Santa Claus. We love it. If we're lucky, we get work during this week in November. For Book Week Scotland 2018 I ended up in Grangemouth Library, which isn't too far away from me - except the bus made it feel like a far-flung world.…

Riot Grrrls. Diet Grrrls. Who Really Gives A F**k?

It started with Shampoo, a band whose bratty attitude and shouty vocals made me want to stay out too late and hitch a lift home on a milk truck. Except the local dairy farm went bankrupt and I wasn't allowed out too late in case I accidentally walked into a fight between The Greenfaulds Stab…

The Shirley Jackson Fan Club (Sign Me Up!)

Some books fade fast, their effect fleeting. Other books remain, powerful and potent. Shirley Jackson wrote those sorts of books. They haunt the reader for a long time after the last page. I've long been a fan of Shirley Jackson; well, that's not quite accurate. I was a fan of The Haunting of Hill House,…

Divine, Kurt, and Ricki Walk Into A Bar…

  Divine, a larger than life drag queen, was more bombed blondshell than blond bombshell. But it didn't matter to me. From the moment I saw her during a late-night broadcast of Female Trouble, I knew she was something different. I mean, we all knew. You couldn't deny the punk weirdness of a fat drag…

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…