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 ReviewsClear Water - Will AshonAshon's confident, tragicomic prose never falters Read more »| 13 Sep 2006
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    Book ReviewsSarah Waters [SKINNYFest 4]Lesbian historical novels: tits without the tat. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    FeaturesThe Dangerous Words of Ngugi Wa Thiong'o [SKINNYFest 4]A dictator fears people who think for themselves. So when you get the ordinary, working people no longer singing about the leader but singing about themselves - what they have done in history, what they can do; what they have done before, what they can do again àthat kind of awareness can make a dictator nervous. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    FeaturesPure Dead Brilliant, By The Way [SKINNYFEST 3] [PRINT VERSION]I was this zonked-out hippie trying to write poetry and figure out what was going on in the universe. This guy's out there starting the revolution and making a million pounds and losing it and making another million pounds. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    Book ReviewsSam Leith and Hufo Rifkind [SKINNYFest 4]They appear far more comfortable as journalists than novelists: their awkward readings do not suggest that their prose is suited to extended descriptions. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    Book ReviewsJohn Mortimer SKINNYFEST4It is a measure of the extraordinary affection that John Mortimer evokes that not only was this event sold out, the queue to get in stretched all around the ... Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    Book ReviewsDoris Lessing [SKINNYFest 4]It was the questions from audience members about her rich back catalogue that were really engrossing. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    Book ReviewsMy Father's Notebook - Kader Abdolah [SKINNYFest 3]Kader Abdolah weaves Sufi myths, political intrigue and biography into a charming meditation on the relationship between father and son Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    FeaturesDistrict and Circle - Seamus Heaney [SKINNYFest 4]Seamus Heaney exposes the immense fragility of our daily existence Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    FeaturesHeir to Gormenghast [SKINNYFest 1SF: Sebastian Peake talks about his father's life and work
 PQ: Sixty years since Titus Groan was first published, Mervyn Peake remains one of the most original and underappreciated writers and artists of the 20th Century. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    Book ReviewsOverexposure - Hugo Rifkind [SKINNYFest 1]The frothy tone undermines serious intent. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    FeaturesHeir to Gormenghast [SKINNYFest Issue 2]SF: Sebastian Peake talks about his father's life and work
 PQ: Sixty years since Titus Groan was first published, Mervyn Peake remains one of the most original and underappreciated writers and artists of the 20th Century. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    EventsDoris Lessing (skinnyfest)Still going strong after six decades of creative output. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    EventsFrancis Fukuyama (skinnyfest)One of the most influential and controversial political theorists of our time discusses the failure of American neoconservatism and the war in Iraq. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
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    FeaturesBook Ahead! [SKINNYFEST]Festival director Catherine Lockerbie gives us the skinny on the festival and reveals her top picks of 2006. Read more »| 14 Aug 2006
 
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
     
      
    