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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NewsCrime novels top Scottish fiction vote
Scottish readers are a macabre lot: turns out we love a crime thriller, according to a new survey from the Scottish Book Trust Read more »| 21 Nov 2016 -
FeaturesGraphic Content: Stef Bradley
Liverpool-based zine maker Stef Bradley makes comics that celebrate the extraordinary everyday. Read more »| 18 Nov 2016 -
NewsNew book imagines Iraq in 100 years' time
An anthology of short stories published today asks ten Iraqi writers what their country might look like in the year 2103 Read more »| 17 Nov 2016 -
FeaturesMake Fiction Great Again! 5 Literary Demagogues
You couldn’t write what’s unfolding on the global stage right now. Yet several writers have come close, as evidenced with the characters laid out below. Have a peek, between your fingers, at what could be in store for the human race Read more »| 15 Nov 2016 -
Theatre
Roald Dahl: Conservative or Progressive?
This December, the West Yorkshire Playhouse stages an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved novel about witchcraft and the awkward journey to adulthood, T... Read more »| 10 Nov 2016 -
Festivals
Women in Comedy: Short Story Competition Winner
The Women in Comedy Festival Writing Competition invites entries in two categories: a short sketch or monologue, and a short story. The Skinny North is ... Read more »| 09 Nov 2016
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FeaturesLost for Words: What future for our libraries?
Libraries across the country are struggling to survive in a climate of budget cuts. Our writer reports from Warrington, where her childhood library faces an uncertain future Read more »| 07 Nov 2016 -
Book Reviews
A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan
Kirsty Logan returns with A Portable Shelter where imagination meets life's inevitable harshness. Read more »| 04 Nov 2016 -
Features
Female friendship in Zadie Smith and Ferrante
Zadie Smith’s new novel Swing Time proves that fictional female friends are in with the popular crowd Complicated female relationships seem to be ever... Read more »| 04 Nov 2016 -
Book Reviews
Crash Land by Doug Johnstone
Finn Sullivan, an idealistic and headstrong university student, has his life turned on its head after showing his chivalrous side in the defence of a strange... Read more »| 04 Nov 2016 -
News
Women of the World festival comes to the Northwest
An instalment of the Women of the World festival will be held in Chester, at the city's new multi-arts venue Storyhouse, in May 2017. Read more »| 04 Nov 2016 -
Book Reviews
Vampire in Love by Enrique Vila-Matas
This collection of short stories is bizarre, and that’s entirely the point. We witness a dinner party with Margeurite Duras, our narrator hopelessly in... Read more »| 03 Nov 2016 -
Festivals
Olivia Laing at Manchester Literature Festival
An evening with Olivia Laing at Manchester Literature Festival offered insight into the writer's experience of – and coming-to-terms with – lonel... Read more »| 02 Nov 2016 -
Festivals
Susan Calman at Manchester Literature Festival
Comedian Susan Calman strips back the irony and bares her soul at an event centered around her memoir Cheer Up Love: Adventures in Depression... “I ki... Read more »| 01 Nov 2016 -
Festivals
Sungju Lee at Manchester Literature Festival
Our writer reports from a moving and thought-provoking event at Manchester Literature Festival: human rights activist Sungju Lee talking about his early life... Read more »| 01 Nov 2016