'This is not a bedtime story' – Review: The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman
The Secret Commonwealth
True original Chris McQueer cooks up surreal tales of the city
Greggs fan Chris McQueer offers funny, sometimes grotesque, visions of life in Glasgow’s schemes
'We’ve put his ashes in the sea because he’s at home there'
LATE in the summer of last year, around 10 weeks before his death, fisherman Alasdair Macleod was visiting the island of Lismore and stopped in to pay his respects to the son of a farmer who had passed away.
TV review: Blue Planet II – 'a blues for mother earth'
There is a temptation when writing about Blue Planet II (BBC One) to simply type out the word “wow” a few hundred times; that, after all, is pretty much what was unspooling in my head as Hokusai waves glittered and twisted across the screen in extreme slow-motion. But here goes with something a little more considered.
Review: La Belle Sauvage – the Book of Dust Volume One by Philip Pullman
La Belle Sauvage: The Book Of Dust Volume One
Stuart Cosgrove on Memhis 68, growing up in a Perth council estate and 'buzzing' on Mandrax
A kitchen table in the east end of Glasgow. Arranged upon it are objects required to tell a story: an old toy bus; three seven-inch singles each worth about £2,000; a yellowing newspaper with a bellowing headline, the tragic force of which has not faded these 50 years. Naturally, there is also a pot of tea.
