Tag Archives: article

In which the author writes for The Author…

 

The Spring issue of The Author, the quarterly magazine of the Society of Authors, features an article I wrote on how writers can get the best out of giving talks and presentations. And speaking of such, my thanks go out to the staff of North Ayrshire Libraries for inviting me to give an illustrated talk at the North Ayrshire Heritage Centre in Saltcoats on Thursday 22 March.

 

As the talk was on the subject of Scottish Bodysnatching, and as the venue is a former church, I delivered the first part of talk in the graveyard, giving the audience a quick lesson in grave-robbing, nineteenth-century style. This involved audience participation (well, someone had to be the corpse), a theme that continued back inside, where three audience members enthusiastically took on the roles of bodysnatchers.

 
 

In which the author writes a column for the Glasgow Evening Times…

 

On Monday (16th January) the Evening Times ran an article on your humble author, headlined Meet the new Mr Glasgow the History Man. Reporter Russell Leadbetter chatted to me about The Little Book of Glasgow, including the story of the city in the Second World War, and the tendency of Glaswegians, historically, to prefer riots over battles.

 

The feature functioned as a trailer for a weekly column in the newspaper. From 23rd January I’ll have a column in the Evening Times every Monday. Entitled ‘Historical Times’, it consists of extracts from The Little Book of Glasgow – everything from sport to film, from architecture to pop stars, and from astronomical druids to zoological oddities.