So I’ve updated my Events page to include write-ups of all my Book Week Scotland gigs from last week. They were a mixed bag, as per usual. All very interesting, though, and definitely worth doing.
I’ve also added my last gig of the year, which is at Perth Prison in a couple of weeks. Not open to the public, obviously. I’ve done prison events before and they’re always very interesting.
Dx
I’m off on tour! The week after next is the Scottish Book Trust’s Book Week Scotland, and I have five gigs on five nights around Scotland. Come see me in the flesh and ask me an embarrassing question. The dates are:
23rd November, Stewart’s Melville College, Edinburgh, 7.30pm
With Christopher Brookmyre, Alex Gray and Sara Sheridan.
24th November, Highland Literary Salon, Glen Mhor Hotel, Inverness, 7.30pm
25th November, Cardonald Library, Glasgow, 7.30pm
26th November, Alexandria Library, 7.30pm
27th November, Readers’ Dinner, Fife College, Kirkcaldy, 6.30pm
With Maggie Craig, Douglas Jackson, Linda Cracknell, Rosie Wallace and Sue Peebles.
See yeh down the front for the crowdsurfing.
illustration by Dom McKenzie
Here’s my Big Issue review of William Gay’s Little Sister Death (Faber) and A Mile Down (William Heinemann) by David Vann. Both cracking.
What do James M Cain and George Mackay Brown have in common? They’re both mentioned in this penetrating Q&A I did with the inimitable Karen Sullivan over at Orenda Books, that’s what. I did some deep digging for this one, folks!
Here is a nice interview I did over at Bulgarian website Land of Books, where I talk about publicity, sales, habits, and a bunch of other stuff. Very direct questions. ‘Who are you?’ for example. Existential crisis, ahoy!
Enjoy! Dx
illustration by Dom McKenzie
Here’s a thing I wrote for The Big Issue magazine about a brilliant project organised by Sarah Weinman called Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s. Please check it out. There’s also an accompanying website for the project here. Well worth a look. I was really blown away by this whole thing. Enjoy!
I was absolutely delighted to be down in Durham at the weekend as one of the judges for the Gordon Burn Prize. It’s awarded every year for an outstanding book, fiction or non-fiction, that reflected the innovation and dedication of Gordon’s work when he was alive. Anyhoo, at a lovely award ceremony, myself and the other judges announced that Dan Davies had won it for his book about Jimmy Savile, In Plain Sight (Quercus). It’s a mind-boggling read, a truly important book, and I think everyone should read it for what it says about our society. Here’s how the BBC covered the award.
Aye so, here are me and Helen FitzGerald knocking the chat back and forth for The Life Sentence. This was a lot of fun to do.
Doug Johnstone 