Books
The Skinny book guide – bringing you book reviews, features, events, reviews and author interviews. Find previews and on the ground reporting from festivals of literature and poetry in Scotland and beyond.
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Book ReviewsAll The Little Guns Went Bang, Bang, Bang by Neil Mackay
“Blood’s everywhere,” says Pearce Furlong, one of the two 11 year old protagonists in Neil Mackay’s splendid debut. “Most peopl... Read more »| 10 Jun 2013 -
FeaturesEvie Wyld: Into the Outback
We steal some time from Evie Wyld's cultural expedition of Vietnam to ask her about her new novel, All the Birds, Singing, the enduring Australian landscape, and what animal she would most like to be Read more »| 10 Jun 2013 -
Features
Neil Mackay: Why Children Kill
Multi-award winning investigative journalist, broadcaster and documentary maker Neil Mackay has spent years reporting on the people at the centre of crime and violence. A good background, you might think, for his debut novel... Read more »| 07 Jun 2013 -
FeaturesDavid Gaffney and Nicholas Royle: Head to Head
Authors David Gaffney and Nicholas Royle appear at Didsbury Arts Festival this month. Gaffney's sometime collaborator Sarah-Clare Conlon chairs a discussion between the two as they debate long versus micro fiction, and the influence of place on writing Read more »| 06 Jun 2013 -
Book Reviews
Here and Now: Selected Letters 2008-2011 - Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee
Here and Now collects the correspondence between Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee, two writers who occupy similar constellations in the literary imagination, wri... Read more »| 05 Jun 2013 -
Book Reviews
The Folded Man by Matt Hill
Matt Hill's debut novel – a dystopian satire in the sharp, graphic style of transgressive fiction, with a central character who thinks he's a mermaid &... Read more »| 03 Jun 2013
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Book ReviewsDirty Work by Gabriel Weston
Dirty Work follows the tribunal of young doctor Nancy after performing an abortion leaves her frozen and unable to help the patient bleeding to death before ... Read more »| 31 May 2013 -
Book ReviewsThe Professor of Truth by James Robertson
In The Professor of Truth James Robertson again proves himself to be one of Scotland’s best writers and one of the best writers in the world at explori... Read more »| 29 May 2013 -
Book Reviews
Unhappy Go Lucky by Ian Pattison
Years ago the fact that Rab C. Nesbitt had to be subtitled in England made quite a few folk smile. From the writer of all ten series of that programme, Un... Read more »| 28 May 2013 -
Book Reviews
A Wolf in Hindelheim by Jenny Mayhew
Frau Ute Koenig gave the horizon a searching look with her cool green eyes. Nothing ever happened in Hindelheim, because it was a fictional village in interw... Read more »| 27 May 2013 -
Book Reviews
Anywhere's Better Than Here by Zöe Venditozzi
Shortlisted for the 2010 Dundee International Book Prize, Anywhere’s Better Than Here is the story of Laurie, whose life has met a dead end at jus... Read more »| 27 May 2013 -
Book Reviews
The Home Corner by Ruth Thomas
The Home Corner is the story of a young woman cut loose from the airless confines of school and drifting almost imperceptibly from adolescence to adulthood. ... Read more »| 23 May 2013 -
Book Reviews
Bear Witness by Mandy Haggith
One of the central themes of this novel – Mandy Haggith’s second with a bear in the title – is independence. It’s dealt with on a sli... Read more »| 22 May 2013 -
Book Reviews
Gutter 08
Gutter is a leading Scottish journal of prose, poetry, and review. The latter comprise a small wedge in the centre of the magazine, offering a nice round-u... Read more »| 21 May 2013 -
Features
Iain Banks: Till The Space Cows Come Home
Following the tragic news that Iain Banks has terminal cancer, we asked Andrew Wilson, who has known Banks for over 20 years, to reflect on the life and work of one of Scotland's greatest authors Read more »| 09 May 2013