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 ReviewsPilgrim's Flower by Rachael Boast
Rachael Boast’s first collection, Sidereal, won the Forward Prize for best debut and the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize, so her second has a lot... Read more »| 02 Dec 2013 -
Book ReviewsLetters of Note by Shaun Usher
Based on the website of the same name, Letters of Note is a compilation of 125 letters that truly runs the epistolary gamut. There are, of course, a fair few... Read more »| 02 Dec 2013 -
Book Reviews
The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble
Anna is a girl with a sunny temperament, trusts strangers without hesitation, and wins medals for her doggy paddling: ‘Anna was born happy, a pure gold... Read more »| 02 Dec 2013 -
Book ReviewsThe Mile by Craig A. Smith
Craig A. Smith’s debut novel follows three friends on a pub crawl down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. Ian is a happy family man, Euan is in a crumb... Read more »| 28 Nov 2013 -
Book ReviewsIn Rude Health by Robbie Guillory
Humans are a kinky, sexually dysfunctional and - above all - stupid species; just ask any of our frontline healthcare professionals, especially after a drunk... Read more »| 28 Nov 2013 -
Book ReviewsDay by Day by Sister Stan
Promising to be ‘a treasury of mediations on mindfulness to comfort and inspire,’ Day by Day is formatted in 365 short sections intended to be re... Read more »| 27 Nov 2013
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Book Reviews
Sufficient Grace by Amy Espeseth
Present and populous since before the creation of the novel itself, the coming-of-age tale has been told and re-told more times and in more ways than just ab... Read more »| 26 Nov 2013 -
Features
Andrew McConnell Stott: Byromania
Ahead of the publication of The Vampyre Family, a group biography of key members of the Romantic era, Andrew McConnell Stott talks to us about his former life as a stand-up comedian and the undying celebrity appeal of Lord Byron Read more »| 30 Oct 2013 -
Features
Nicola White: Literary Prizefighter
Fending off competition from 350 other entrants, Nicola White's In the Rosary Garden is the winner of this year's Dundee International Book Prize. She discusses the road to success and the controversial themes of her novel Read more »| 28 Oct 2013 -
Book Reviews
In the Rosary Garden by Nicola White
Nicola White's debut novel begins with the shocking discovery of a dead baby in the grounds of a convent school in 1980s Ireland. From there we follow the st... Read more »| 25 Oct 2013 -
Book Reviews
Prayer by Philip Kerr
Contrasting human brutality with our ability to rationalise and understand the complexities of a life lived weaving amongst religious belief, Philip Kerr&r... Read more »| 22 Oct 2013 -
Book Reviews
Bang Said the Gun
The Bang Said the Gun anthology has been described as a collection for 'people who don’t like poetry.' Indeed those unmoved by gushing sonnets, couplet... Read more »| 22 Oct 2013 -
Book Reviews
The Vampyre Family by Andrew McConnell Stott
Halfway through the book, there's a quote from Samuel Johnson: ‘The best advice to authors would be, that they should keep out of the way of one anothe... Read more »| 22 Oct 2013 -
Book Reviews
The Eidolon by Libby McGugan
“You’re asking me to sabotage one of the greatest experiments in scientific history?” asks The Eidolon’s narrator, theoretical physic... Read more »| 22 Oct 2013 -
Book Reviews
The Girl on The Ferryboat by Angus Peter Campbell
This is a novel evidently written by a poet – the descriptions of life on the Scottish islands are both vivid and beautifully crafted. The anecdotes Ca... Read more »| 22 Oct 2013