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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FestivalsEdinburgh Book Festival: Sean Michaels & Anna Smaill
The Us Conductors and The Chimes authors discuss their latest novels at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Read more »| 28 Aug 2015 -
FestivalsLimmy @ Edinburgh Book Festival, 22 Aug
Glasgow comedian Limmy appears at the Book Festival to read from his first book Daft Wee Stories. Read more »| 28 Aug 2015 -
Features
The Incomparable Terry Pratchett
As Terry Pratchett’s final book reaches shelves this month, The Skinny looks back at an author who managed to unite literature aficionados and fantasy fans alike Read more »| 27 Aug 2015 -
Festivals
Edinburgh Book Festival: John Darnielle & Gavin Extence
John Darnielle and Gavin Extence discuss mental health and their latest novels – Wolf In White Van and The Mirror World of Melody Black respectively – at the Edinburgh Book Festival Read more »| 24 Aug 2015 -
FestivalsJoanne Harris @ Edinburgh Book Festival, 16 Aug
Joanne Harris, discussing The Gospel of Loki as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Read more »| 19 Aug 2015 -
Festivals
Lydia Kavina talks theremins and Jura Unbound
Joining author Sean Michaels at The Skinny's Unbound night will be Lydia Kavina, the world's leading thereminist, grand-niece and protegé of its master inventor. We speak to her about Léon Termen's curious legacy Read more »| 19 Aug 2015
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Festivals
Defecting from Dear Leader: Hyeonseo Lee
In advance of her Edinburgh International Book Festival appearance, The Skinny talks to Hyeonseo Lee – the girl with seven names – about her sad and beautiful memoir of disenfranchisement and defection from North Korea Read more »| 07 Aug 2015 -
Festivals
Manchester Literature Festival: the programme
The tenth year of Manchester Literature Festival is its biggest yet, and covers everything from comic book art to psychogeography, postcapitalism to poetry Read more »| 07 Aug 2015 -
Book Reviews
Requiem for a Soldier by Oleg Pavlov
A grotesque, caricatural portrait of the last days of the Soviet Empire is offered by Pavlov in his latest work to be translated into English. Alyosha, ... Read more »| 04 Aug 2015 -
Book ReviewsZero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano
Roberto Saviano dedicates this book to his armed Carabinieri bodyguards and the 51,000 hours they’ve spent together since previous work Gomorrah sent h... Read more »| 03 Aug 2015 -
Book Reviews
The Whispering Swarm by Michael Moorcock
Set in London in the 1950s, Michael Moorcock's The Whispering Swarm blends autobiography and fantasy – aiming, he says, for a sort of book he... Read more »| 03 Aug 2015 -
Book Reviews
Us Conductors by Sean Michaels
We must declare a conflict of interests here. Author Sean Michaels was, once upon a time, a writer for The Skinny, so a sense of solidarity has us willing a ... Read more »| 31 Jul 2015 -
Features
Limmy's Daft Wee Interview
The Skinny braves the dark mind of Glasgow comedy hero Limmy to learn a little more about his new book: the appropriately titled Daft Wee Stories Read more »| 31 Jul 2015 -
Features
Author Yuri Herrera on 'the American problem that Mexico is suffering'
The literary voice of Mexican author Yuri Herrera transcends his native land and tongue, crosses the U.S. border – so significant in his writing – and forces the wider world to listen. We chat ahead of his date with Edinburgh International Book Festival Read more »| 30 Jul 2015 -
FeaturesRhyme and Reasons: Poetry picks for Edinburgh Festival
Looking through the 2015 Festival line-up – including a Skinny sponsored Kate Tempest event – 2015 StAnza Poet in Residence Clare Mulley ponders that elusive theoretical point on the arts spectrum between 'poetry' and what is now known as 'spoken word' Read more »| 30 Jul 2015