Who will speak for us? —is sometimes as simple as who speaks like us. We all might be Jock Tamson’s bairns, but in the real world debut novelists those using Scottish dialect don’t win prizes. How Late it Was, How Late , well it was 1985 when something like this happened. James Kelman caused a kerfuffle. Rabbi Julia Neuberger saying the book was ‘crap’. I prefer Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing , or Janice Galloway’s memoir that’s not a...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08vy19b/small-axe-series-1-mangrove In my day Steve McQueen was the go-to guy if you wanted ride a motorcycle over barbed wire to escape the Germans, or rescue screaming women and children from a building skyscraper. We’re still waiting for the enquiry into Grenfell Tower, but we all know the score. Nothing much will be done, while the issues of class and race hatred will be quietly shunted into a side-line...

I might be alone in this but I'm getting a bit bored with myself. It's been so interesting to live the lives of others in that brief moment of reading. Thanks to all contributers for that wonderful respite. Our two picks this week give coniderable insight into the lives of others - just wonderful to a nosey parker like me. Thank you Hudsonmoon for his sweetly uplifting slice of ordinary life lived well: https://www.abctales.com/story/hudsonmoon/...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tw1jz/play-for-today-series-10-... Most people my age fondly remember Boys from The Black Stuff shown in the early 1980s. Yosser Hughes’s (Bernard Hill) catchphrase: ‘I can do that, gie’s a job!’ The Black Stuff was a prequel to Boys from The Black Stuff . It had the kind of audience figures—I’d guess around 15-20 million—that had cultural resonance in its depiction of working-class life in rundown...

Going back to when we lived normally, well, as normal as possible. I bought my gorgeous Granddaughter tickets for Little Mix concert to be held here, in what was then, sunny Peterborough. She had a birthday coming up around the time of the concert. So, Granddad thought! what a great idea and went ahead with purchase. As we all know, Covid (China) decided otherwise and the show was cancelled. Refund duly given. I did promise Ava that when they...

David Gange (2019) The Frayed Atlantic Edge: A Historian’s Journey from Shetland to the Channel. Historian David Gange travels by kayak around the coast of Scotland facing the Atlantic in winter sounds like madness. Takes in Ireland in spring time and crosses the channel to the less ragged coast of Bardsey in Wales and Bristol and Cornwall in the summer. He offers a low-down view from the sea that mimics E.P. Thompson’s bottom-up view of history...

The Mole: Infiltrating North Korea, BBC iPlayer, writer and director Mads Brügger. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000nr85/the-mole-infiltrating-north-korea-series-1-part-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000nr87/the-mole-infiltrating-north-korea-series-1-part-2 A cautionary tale. Otto Warmbier, a student of the University of Michigan was freed by North Korean officials after being detained and sentenced to 15 years for allegedly...

Here I go again! Strange times indeed, I hear it said often, and I guess there is no argument about that. I would consider them awkward times with all the restriction with lockdowns, can we can't we. Those that do and tose that couldn't give a toss as long as they can go on holiday or have a BBQ with all their mates or families. I feel sad for all those that are on a knife edge as far as work/wages are concerned. It's good to se the help that is...

Maybe, like me, you think that life in Amsterdam is freer and more advanced than in Bojoland Britain. But for Hendrik Groen, Henk to his pals, even though he makes himself get out for walks, come rain or shine, it's drab. He lives in a care home where the residents only have the state pension and maybe a small work pension. A lot of the residents drivel on about the good old days, complain about their aches and pains, worship the Royals and huff...

I’m delighted. I kept checking the US election results in the same way I usually check the football results to see how my team, Celtic, are doing. I get it. I really do. I’m not American. I was not going to influence the almost 75 million polled votes for Joe Biden, nor the just over 70 million votes for Donald J Trump. For the last five years I’ve called him the moron’s moron. He is no more. When the 45 th United States President was elected, I...