Culture
Life With Gray O’Brien: ‘I am so disappointed with the current vein of dramas on TV at the moment’
Scottish actor Gray O’Brien on growing up, the TV he’s watching at home, and the best advice he’s ever been given. I was born in Glasgow and moved to Stewarton, Ayrshire where I was brought up from the age of three, but I live in Stirlingshire now. I was a nightmare pupil at school.…
Read MoreThe Good Books, Claire Wilson: ‘I learned my craft reading Stephen King from an early age’
Claire Wilson on the books of her childhood and how Stephen King and Val McDermid inspired her writing. The first book I remember reading: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Maybe in primary three? My mum took me and my brothers to the library every weekend, where I then read everything he…
Read MoreLife With Brandon McPhee: ‘I’ll never forget the moment my grandad let me try his accordion for the first time—it just felt right’
Musician Brandon McPhee on falling in love with the accordion, how Jimmy Shand continues to inspire him and the music he listens to at home. I grew up in Castletown, a small village in the far north of Caithness – so far north, in fact, that you might think you’d fall off the edge of…
Read MoreThe Good Books, Marisa Haetzman: ‘Denise Mina is one of Scotland’s great writers, I’m looking forward to her next book’
Dr Marisa Haetzman is a former consultant anaesthetist and together with her husband Chris Brookmyre, she writes under the joint pen name Ambrose Parry. The pair will be appearing at Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival in Stirling 12-14 September. For tickets and further information go to www.bloodyscotland.com The first book I remember reading: I don’t…
Read MoreLife With Victoria Crowe: ‘I’ve drawn ever since I was a small child and even then it was a kind of conversation with myself’
One of Scotland’s leading painters and most recognised artists, Victoria Crowe, on her childhood, art being her first love, and her time in Venice. I’ve lived in the Borders ever since we moved up to Scotland in 1968. I have a studio there and also one in Edinburgh. I grew up in Kingston which…
Read MoreThe Good Books, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart: ‘Keeping readers enthralled as to what might happen next should be the focus of any storyteller’
Dugald Bruce-Lockhart on not reading War and Peace, his love of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses and the books of his childhood. The first book I remember reading: Other than the Ladybird book of dinosaurs, the first proper story I remember reading was Shadow the Sheepdog, by Enid Blyton. Along with Gerald Durrell’s novels, my…
Read MoreLife With Mairi Campbell: ‘Hearing my version of Auld Lang Syne in the Sex And The City was surreal’
Mairi Campbell chats to us about bringing her Pendulum Trilogy together for the first time, the music she listens to at home, and her song being featured in Sex And The City. I grew up in Edinburgh. My mum’s family is Edinburgh; my dad is West Highland. I grew up in the city –…
Read MoreDalkeith Palace to host exhibition by Paul Martin
The eighteenth century splendour of Dalkeith Palace will play host to an exhibition by Paul Martin this June. The exhibition will feature the final works of this remarkable artist, seen for the first time, alongside a retrospective of 50 years of painting and printmaking. Paul Martin began his studies in the late 1960s at Birmingham…
Read MoreLife With Damien Warren-Smith: ‘Gary’s my alter ego. He’s me if I had zero inhibitions. He’s my Sasha Fierce’
Damien Warren-Smith, aka Garry Starr, on his Scottish roots, his alter ego and the Monty Python sketch he wished he’d created. I was born in Inverness but sadly left Scotland when I was less than a year old. My Dad worked for BBC Radio Scotland, but my Mum was from the northern beaches of…
Read MoreLife With Linwood Barclay: ‘Sir Ian Rankin took me for a drink at The Oxford Bar, it was special’
Author Linwood Barclay on being take to The Oxford Bar with Ian Rankin, the books he always recommends and his time in Scotland. I was born in Darien, Connecticut, but my parents moved north to the suburbs of Toronto, in Canada, just before I turned four years old. And when it was time to…
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