How many languages can you speak? Read and write in? I do a passable impression of English. That’s about it. Eliska Tanzer, birthplace was Drovane. She was brought up in a Romani ghetto in Slovakia. Therefore, she can speak Slovak and Romani. She learned the language of dance from her mother, Lenka, a prostitute but continued to fail to learn their family trade and couldn’t blow a banana. Franz Volker was East German before he was German. So...

Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit received at the moment of conversion? There are two processes involved in becoming a Christian, receiving Jesus as Saviour and being baptised in the Holy Spirit. Many Christians believe that these two processes occur at the same time. There are some Bible verses which seem to support this point of view. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ. (Romans 8:9.) After hearing the...

Filed by Fletcher Moody — Literary Correspondent In 1921 I was sent to a lecture hall in London to watch the creator of Sherlock Holmes make a fool of himself, and I went, I admit, looking forward to it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was by then the most famous author alive, and he had spent the past several years using that fame to promote spiritualism — séances, spirit photography, communication with the dead. The newspapers had begun to treat him as...

Did you pass the Scottish nationality test? I just managed it. Went to bed at 11.30pm and was up again for 1pm. Scotland were playing Haiti in Boston at 2am. That’s our time. Not US time. My favourite girl in the world, Tilly, aged eight, was allowed to watch the game with her dad, but Finn, aged three, was encouraged to sleep through the festivities in his Scotland top and shorts. It’s been a boon time for the bars. The game being on BBC meant...

Well I guess it is time for a little update. My son's dad is being the worst person on the planet. In the last month which has included our son's birthday, he has just been the meanest man ever. Who knew leaving a bad situation would just land me into another? My car broke down today, i have been told by my doctor that i need medication to keep me stable mentally and I just feel done. I feel like I am drowning. I feel not good enough to be a...

This is my second reading of Muriel Spark, The Driver’s Seat . And the third reading of the introduction by John Lanchester of this short novel or novella (100 pages) part of the Penguin Classics. You either like a story or you don’t. I didn’t like The Driver’s Seat . It has a back-to-front plot. In the first few pages the reader is told Lise will be stabbed to death. A bit like being told there’s one day to the World Cup 2026 and Brazil will...

I recently appeared on the Scots Wae Hae podcast to discuss my new book. I have attached the link in case anyone fancies listeing to it. FamilyMan has received brilliant reviews with Undiscovered Scotland saying it's one of the best crime books to come out of Edinburgh. And the Scotsman newspaper reffered to me as North Edinburgh's Tarantino. Which are wonderful compliments to receive. This is the link to the podcast interview where I discuss my...

Filed by Fletcher Moody — Literary Correspondent I went to the Old Bailey in the spring of 1895 to watch a man be destroyed, and I am ashamed to say I went eagerly. So did everyone. That was the nature of the thing. Oscar Wilde was, at that moment, the most successful playwright in London. The Importance of Being Earnest was selling out every night a few streets away, and the man who wrote it was on trial, and the city could not decide which...

Eric Manheimer is multicultural, multilingual and as he reminds readers in the title, MD. He’s a doctor. And also the director of the biggest public hospital in New York, Bellevue. What makes Bellevue different, apart from its apparent excellence, is the hospital will treat anyone who walks through its doors. Even undocumented immigrants. Manheimer and Bellevue’s ethos represents the best of America. His book was published and republished 17...

I thought myself pretty smart, when I was wee, writing my name and street and town and county (Scotland) and Europe and World and Universe. I was, of course, centre of the Jack O’Donnellian world. Just imagine if you were American President? A narcissistic psychopath that couldn’t imagine he wasn’t the centre of the world. His blot on the map irreversible. We don’t need a Galileo to show the Trumpicentric view of the universe is as crazy as it...