Our top ten Scottish doomed love affairs

‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ according to Alfred Lord Tennyson. Although we’re not sure that all of these couples would agree, romance certainly can be a difficult path to navigate. Here’s 10 of our favourites. 1. Madonna and Guy Ritchie The Queen of Pop married director…

Read More

Biggest Gaelic festival in the world returns to Glasgow

The Royal National Mòd will return to Glasgow next month for the 13th time – with an outstanding number of individual participants set to take to the competition stage. This success is attributed to the work that An Comunn Gàidhealach and the Royal National Mòd do with Feisgoil and Glasgow Language Provision Schools, helping to…

Read More

A superb six events coming to the south of Scotland

Six major festivals and sporting events will give visitors the chance to enjoy the food, drink, culture and countryside of Dumfries and Galloway in all its rich variety. There’s everything from top-flight cycle racing and motorsport through to the finest foods from farm and sea, plus literature and a festival of light. These take place…

Read More

When Rankin meets Rankin at Scots restaurant

Edinburgh has seen all kinds of artistic collaborations over the years – but this month brings a first. Renowned London chef, Neil Rankin and top Scottish author, Ian Rankin will be jointly hosting a lunch at Ondine restaurant celebrating their love of food and literature. The event on August 21 is the latest in a…

Read More

Alexander McCall Smith is Mr Brightside

Alexander McCall Smith, whose books are a prescription for happiness, talks about his responsibility to his readers and the female influences in his life. His kitchen table is hiding beneath the complete works of Yotam Ottolenghi, the current darling of the adventurous middle-class kitchen. Sandy, as everyone calls him, is on dinner duty tonight and…

Read More

New writers given a chance to shine at festival

Aberdeen’s crime fiction festival, Granite Noir, will be back for a fourth year in 2020 – with plans already underway for the biggest and most ambitious event yet. Having established itself as one of Scotland’s signature literature festivals, Granite Noir has doubled its attendance levels since its inception in 2017. Each year, the Locals in…

Read More

Outlander creator Diana Gabaldon has the write stuff

For millions of television viewers across the world, the exploits of a Scotsman are appointment watching. We’re talking about Outlander – the TV series based on the works of Diana Gabaldon, featuring an English nurse who falls through time to the aftermath of Culloden, where she meets the dashing Jamie Fraser (Heughan). In 2014, the…

Read More

Joanna Lumley celebrates Moat Brae opening

The newly opened Moat Brae – Scotland’s new National Centre for Storytelling and Children’s Literature – has been declared as absolutely fabulous by Joanna Lumley. The opening of Moat Brae, the house and garden where Peter Pan began, was celebrated with a colourful garden party hosted the trustees of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust…

Read More

White House is Scotland’s home of the year

The owner of a beautiful bespoke house hugging one of the country’s most stunning coastlines has been crowned winner of Scotland’s Home of the Year, as featured on the new BBC Scotland channel. Retired academic Lesley Smith’s house in Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, was revealed as the stand-out property of the series’ eight-week run in…

Read More