https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002p1fr/oppenheimer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppenheimer_(film) My mate Andy Rat still goes to see films. I think it’s so he doesn’t need to talk to his partner. But you can do that just as well—maybe even better, if you skive off to write stuff—in the upstairs cuboard. Oppenheimer is one of those films I quite fancied. Rat had seen it and Barbie , which came out the same week. He said Oppenheimer ‘was...

My nephew Charlie loves me read ing his "abshe talsh" keep up the good work! There's something for everyone Favourit is swindommoody and cath poach and all the teddybear stories too.

In the 1980's and 90's in Dublin, the theatre scene was dominated by the mercurial genius of Donal McCann . His physicality and intensity electrified the stage. The 1989 run of Juno and the Paycock and his portrayal of Captain Boyle didn't just invite you into the 'fourth wall', he dragged you into the world and character he inhabited and threw you into the nearest chair. I saw that production three times back-to-back. It was considered at the...

The last carry-out, carry-in and carry-on, Vince got was in the Goldenhill at the end of September 2025. Betty’s great-grandson. Wee Arnie’s Christening. The latest addition to the McCann family. One comes in. One goes out. Vince wasn’t drunk—although he had a couple of whiskies—but the wooden stairs outside the pub were as steep as a ladder propped against a cliff. Vince was 93. His legs were older than his head. He’d become the dead spit of...

I don’t blame Neil Oliver for cashing in on short-lived fame. He’s the one with long hair and a mellifluous speaking voice that can drone on for hours about our Coast, the invasion of the Vikings, the ancient stones of Callandish and all the things you’ll never see or thought of but he’s such a nice guy, you’ve got to believe him, he’s brought them right into your living room. He used to go to the University of Glasgow, which is a bit of an...

I’m not a great fan of Elizabeth Strout. Yet Tell Me Everything is the fourth or her six books I’ve read. Explain that? Well, the characters are familiar. As is the settings. Crosby, Maine and far-off (but not too far) New York. ‘This is the story of Bob Burgess, a tall, heavyset man who lives in the town of Crosby, Maine, and he is sixty-five years old at the time we are speaking of him. Bob has a big heart, but he does not know that about...

I spotted Robert Darroch at Gartnavel about seven years ago. He was sitting chatting to my partner’s mum in a greenish high-backed chair. He was quick to offer us the easy-to-wipe seat and move on. I said his name, but he didn’t recognise me. I’m not good with names. He was the opposite. Rarely passed without a smile and a quick word. He was especially good remembering children and old folk’s names (I guess I fit that category now) but that was...

This chapter introduced the novel's signature object. In Orwell's 1984, objects carry weight (the paperweight Winston buys, the diary he keeps, etc). Arthur's speakwrite dial is smaller, more mundane. A piece of bureaucratic machinery. Proof of nothing except that Arthur once took something that wasn't his. Chapter Two: The Speakwrite is uploaded in my collection "Escape From Room 101" now. Please read it and let me know what you think so far...

Liam McIlvanney has writing in his blood. William McIlvanney, of course, is recognised as the godfather of Scottish noir fiction. When Liam McIlvanney won The Bloody Scotland, Scottish Crime Book of the Year—which used to be named after William McIlvanney—with The Quaker , you’d get the impression it was an inside job. A bit like Stephen King’s son, who’s also a writer, winning some big award for horror fiction. I picked up and put down The...

White Jazz is the last of the Dudley Smith trio. A quartet if The Black Dahlia is included. The Big Fix isn’t winner or losers. It’s an ongoing chase in which power is in plain sight. Classic noir asks: Can truth emerge? Ellroy asks more simply, Who controls what we believe after it does? Trump’s insurrection and civil cases, including E. Jean Carroll defamation for him raping her, NY Civil Fraud case, found guilty of falsifying his net worth...