It’s a question Freddy Mercury used to ask. It’s also one that the BBC’s Nick Higham raised when interviewing Kazuo Ishiguro recently about his new novel, Buried. (You’ll find the interview at the end of this post.) And it’s a question we’ve often asked about Gillian Philip‘s Rebel Angels series – Firebrand, Bloodstone, Wolfsbane and…
This Is What I Look Like author Theresa Talbot will be introducing Midge Ure today (as one does). In Ayrshire, though, not Vienna. Ohhhhhh Ayrshire….? No, thankfully Midge and his Ultravox pals had more lyrical sense.
Most ears in Scotland were glued to radios at 1545 today for Kirkland Ciccone‘s spot on BBC Radio Scotland’s Culture Studio programme, hosted by Janice Forsyth. Okay, that’s not all true. People didn’t actually glue their ears to their radios. For those in the know, the big question was: would Kurt be with Kirkland? Kurt Cobain,…
If you caught David Almond’s excellent ‘A World Beyond Alice’ programme on BBC Radio 4 yesterday you’ll have heard him talking Janne Teller about her provocative modern classic Nothing. It’s a remarkable existential novel, with an equally remarkable tale behind its publication. If you missed the programme, click here to go to it on the BBC…
The downside of being a traffic reporter must be that you lose the ability to use ‘I was delayed in traffic’ as an excuse for turning up late. But hopefully a short hop to Glasgow’s Mitchell Library from nearby BBC Scotland HQ will be straightforward for Beechgrove Potting Shed host and traffic presenter Theresa Talbot when she…
Stephen King and TT from BBC Radio Scotland. Eh…what’s the link (we hear you ask)? Well, it suddenly occurred to us that Theresa Talbot‘s This Is What I Look Like is to Traffic and Travel presenting what Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is to putting pen to paper: both are entertaining memoirs…
Theresa outlines the rather odd suggestion that gave rise to her book…
Theresa Talbot, Kirsty Wark, Christopher Brookmyre and James Naughtie. All on the same pavement at the same time, and all in Pitlochry. Ok, they’re not there in person. Not yet. But they will be soon – Winter Words at Pitlochry Festival Theatre runs 13-21 Feb 2015. Theresa will be main attraction at the Literary Lunch…
At a recent event at Waterstones in Glasgow’s Argyle Street, their children’s bookseller Lana noted a resurgence in rip-roaring adventure novels. It seems book-buyers are embracing jeopardy again. At Strident we like a good dose of danger and get our kicks not on Route 66, but from reading Matt Cartney’s Danny Lansing Adventures series. Few characters take risks like…
The Bookwitch’s year-end round up has been posted. It’s like an advent calendar without ads…or vents. And – just like those little venty windows – it’s always a joy to open. All the more so (for us anyway) for it making mention of Gillian Philip‘s rather brilliant Icefall. https://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/best-of-2014/ For the uninitiated, Icefall is book 4 (the final…
As This Is What I Look Like continues to amuse the nation, Theresa Talbot has been invited by The Sun to choose a few of her own favourite books. Her own book – the antidote to misery memoirs – is now available in branches of WH Smith throughout Scotland, as well as in Waterstones (where it’s…
Read the hilarious new Scottish Book Trust: Author Confessions…with Kirkland Ciccone and you’ll find out which actor Kirkland Ciccone thinks looks just like him (its not who you might imagine!) as the Conjuring The Infinite and Endless Empress author bares his soul.
Young people know too much these days. That’s what Linda Strachan, Matt Cartney, Cathy MacPhail, Kirkland Ciccone and Keith Charters found out when they competed in author teams at recent heats of the Kids’ Lit Quiz – the KLQ. There were lots of prizes on the day, but had their been £1 for each time an…
V (Kick-off 12.03pm) This Is What I Look Like author Theresa Talbot is set to guest on this Saturday’s (8 Nov) Off The Ball , the hilarious football-themed show on BBC Radio Scotland. Have presenters Tam Cowan and Stuart Cosgrove finally met their match? Oops, no pun intended!
Emma Barnes 7+ novel Wolfie is a modern children’s classic that won the 2014 Fantastic Book Awards. And, like the ‘dog’ that Lucy thinks she’s getting, it’s isn’t just for Christmas, regardless of the snow on the Emma Chichester Clark cover (and even though the book has a The Snowman-like quality). We grabbed a couple of minutes with…
Danny Lansing, that is. For his 3rd adrenaline-fuelled adventure, The Curse of Can-Balam. Although it’s a wonder he’s still with us given given the extremes of jeopardy he experienced in The Sons of Rissouli and Red, White and Black. The new book will be available from 31 October. Yes, Halloween. Well, it had to be…
…but with a bit of grunge thrown in, because Conjuring The Infinite and Endless Empress author Kirkland Ciccone appears to have kidnapped the ghost of Kurt Cobain and whisked him off to the yurt at Edinburgh International Book Festival, as you can see in this great new video: Kirkland is off to collect the Catalyst Award…
Because this one does. Why? The clue is in the blurb. (Click to read it.)
We’re big fans of the Teen Titles review magazine, and they’ve very kindly allowed us to reproduce this hilarious interview with The Supreme Master of Weirdness , a.k.a. Kirkland Ciccone. Teen Titles Kirkland Ciccone interview There are so many quotable lines. Our particular favourite involves Tracy Beaker, but then there’s the one about the cow… There’s also…
This Is What I Look Like author Theresa Talbot – ‘TT’ to BBC Radio Scotland listeners – has been snapped up alongside the likes of Kirsty Wark, James Naughtie and Lorraine Kelly to appear at Pitlochry’s Winter Words festival in February. To quote the Winter Words website: ‘…we’ll hear tales from Theresa Talbot, direct from the…
From BBC Traffic & Travel to working with Lulu, Andy Williams and Glen Campbell, via The Beechgrove Potting Shed and the Comedy Unit… This is What I Look Like by Theresa Talbot is full of joyful and insightful tales from one of Scotland’s best known radio voices. It will be published on 2 November. “It’s…
Well, if this doesn’t win the prize for best subtitle, we’ll be ordering some hats. (So we can eat them.) Endless Empress: A Mass Murderer’s Guide to Dictatorship in the Fictional Nation of Enkadar (you can breathe now) will hit the shelves on 30 Oct. Kirkland recently described Endless Empress as a book of traps. Which…
The final instalment of D A Nelson‘s brilliant DarkIsle trilogy is now available as an ebook as well as in paperback. Inspired by a huge stone dragon in Irvine, on the west coast of Scotland, this series has captured the imagination of readers around the world with its combination of fantasy, adventure and humour. [metaslider id=1749]…
Icefall – the breathtaking 4th book in Gillian Philip‘s Rebel Angels series – is now available as an ebook as well as in paperback. [metaslider id=1734] If you haven’t read any of the series yet, our advice is this: before you start, tell your friends (and even your family!) you’ve gone on holiday for a few…
Kirkland Ciccone‘s Catalyst Book Award winner Conjuring The Infinite is now available from all main ebook suppliers. So you can read it on your e-reader or tablet. [metaslider id=1354] If for any reason you can’t find the ebook, try using the ISBN (the book’s unique identifier) to search. It’s 9781905537686.
We’re thrilled for Kirkland Ciccone, whose debut Conjuring The Infinite has followed in the footsteps of Linda Strachan‘s Spider, which won the Catalyst Book Award in 2011. We don’t normally post full media releases here, but Kirkland is always good for a quote. Plus, this way you can find out what’s next from him. It has an extraordinary…
Nothing in life is free. Or so they say. But they’re wrong. Because here’s a free sampler for Lee and the Consul Mutants, the first book in the hilarious Lee series. Lee and the Consul Mutants extract chapter 2 Lee and the Consul Mutants extract chapter 2 If you don’t know the story, it starts with…
Is it a bird, is it a plane…? Actually, it’s probably Matt Cartney researching his next Danny Lansing Adventures novel. Matt may not have the Swivel Eyes of the Action Man below, but he’s got a lot more get up and go, as demonstrated by this short film. (Click link to view. You should be taken…
Just in case you haven’t already put a big ‘X’ on your voting slip for Conjuring The Infinite, here’s chapter 1 so you can read why you should. Enjoy! CONJURING THE INFINITE by Kirkland Ciccone chapter 1 CONJURING THE INFINITE by Kirkland Ciccone chapter 1 Vote KIRKLAND CICCONE for Catalyst Book Award 2014!
Nothing author Janne Teller will be speaking at HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival, this May in Hay-on-Wye. Janne will join Hilary Benn and Thomas Dichter to debate whether foreign aid is perpetuating poverty, speak on whether the web needs a democratic revolution and debate whether distance is irrelevant to moral responsibility. (For…