celticman's blog

I read some books. Pick others up and start reading them. Think that’s interesting and realise I’ve read it before. I was going to say something about grief. But don’t really know what I’m talking about, which isn’t unusual. I couldn’t, for example, make a podcast about it, as Rachel Wilson did, The Grief Network. Or write this book. Here (more or less) is her mission statement. ‘When my mother died, I took it for granted a group tailored to...

I’m not sure who Adam Rutherford is. Professor Hannah Fry has presented a couple of quirky programmes for the BBC. She’s a model scientist and role model for those girls that think science is just for boys. Science matters they tell us. But is also, like everything else, biased. Their Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything is tongue-in-cheek. Because anyone and everyone knows that the complete guide to absolutely everything is on your phone...

The story is in the title. A pamphlet printed in her native Gaelic and later in English. From some ‘sketchy notes’ Isabella MacIver Thomas travelled by the SS Clansman from Lewis to Canada, March 1880. Three years after her wedding to join her husband, (and first cousin) James Thomson. Then by the Canadian Pacific Railway out through to America—Detroit, Chicago, St. Paul, Minnesota and back again to join him—in Canada at Pembina in the province...

Marilyn Shimon recognises that Holocaust literature has become a literary category. It’s one that speaks to many of us, including me. I’m never happier than when I’m reading about someone being miserable. Power corrupts. But as Robert A. Caro in his study of Lyndon B. Johnson shows—it also reveals. We can learn lessons from Holocaust survivors about what it means to be human but treated as sub-human. Everyone has their story. Marilyn Shimon...

Graham Farmelo’s biography of Paul Dirac won the Costa Book Award the year it was published. That was a while ago. I need to do the maths (or arithmetic). Sixteen years ago. You’d need to go back 100 years to inhabit the world of Paul Dirac. Einstein’s special theory of relativity had not yet changed the world. But had changed the way the world was viewed. A Kuhnian revolution in scientific thought. Paul Dirac was a genius whose work Einstein...

James Van Praagh (1998 [2009, 2012]) Talking to Heaven Living with the Dead (Talking to Heaven) (2002), screenwriter John Pielmeier, Director Stephen Gyllenhaal, starring Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. I watched Living with the Dead while scrolling through Prime. It’s based on James Van Praagh’s best-selling memoir. But, of course, instead of a wee baldy fat guy with pretension of being a screenwriter, Ted Danson (Cheers) plays James Van...

What is a poem? I’m not sure. Although I’ve foolishly claimed to have written poetry. I’m not a poet. Bex Hainsworth is. I’m not sure how to explain that either. Poetry is hard. A poet must make it look easy. All houses are haunted by women . ‘My grandmother’s semi-detached. A familiar echo. Mundane made wonderful. ‘…a congregation of glass paperweights’ The obvious word here is a collection, not ‘congregation’. But they are ‘arranged in...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dogman Matteo Garrone's crime thriller is factional story and morality play. It won a stack of awards at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Earned Garrone the Nastro d'Argento awards for both Best Director and Best Producer. I wonder which film won the best writer award because Dogman would be hard to beat. Marcello Fonte’s performance as Marcello won him Best Actor at Cannes. He inhabits the role of Dogman. A man...

I read the biography before the book. James Yorkson is an acclaimed musician. Fuck—right—off, I thought. Another gobshite who in his spare time writes best-selling novels. I had to give it a couple of pages before I had to eat my words. Well, his words. A page turner. Tommy the Bruce is great, just my kind of book. There’s a theory called ‘muddling on’. In Scotland it’s called ‘jist getting on wae it’. Tommy hasn’t much of a life. But he does...

Gabrielle Griffiths’ debut novel Greater Sins is published by Penguin. So what? You might be thinking Well, let me tell you, that’s one of the big four or five publishers. It’s not newsworthy but it is a big deal in the rocky world of publishing. There’s no greater sin than jealousy. So I’ll shut up. Setting: Cabrach. I wasn’t sure if this was a real place. It is. Nearest town Huntly. Nearest big city Aberdeen. We’re in classic Lewis Grassic...