• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contribute
  • Contact

Sceptical Scot

Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.

You are here: Home / Archives for Books & Poetry

Books & Poetry

Edinburgh Makars mak mischief in Poetry Garden

December 13, 2018 by Fay Young 1 Comment

Poetry Tree safely secured behind a temporary wooden fence

Taking a break from Brexit Fay Young finds subversive mischief in the poetry of Edinburgh Makars, as performed in Edinburgh’s Poetry Garden (aka St Andrew Square)

Why politicians need to take a bus ride to reality

November 25, 2018 by Sceptical Scot Editors 6 Comments

Bus ride to reality. The Number 14 bus at Greendykes, Craigmillar, preparing the return journey to Muirhouse

In his short story, The Nummer 14 Bus, James Robertson evokes the daily struggle played out on a bus ride through Scotland’s affluent capital. It could be a bus ride in any UK city.

For love of life on land, sea and sky

November 6, 2018 by Fay Young Leave a Comment

Looking towards Tobermory from Morvern Peninsula at sunset. Picture by Henry Hemming CC By 2.0

Confronting hard facts, authors at the inaugural Tobermory Book Festival raise spirits even as they sound alarm bells. Fay Young finds both comfort and warning in the prose and poetry of Scottish writers gathering on Mull.

Apocalypse now and then…ten years after HBOS crash

September 7, 2018 by Ray Perman 10 Comments

A wet Bank of Scotland £5 note

The events leading up to the crash began in New York, 7 September 2008. A week later the shock waves engulfed Scotland’s oldest bank in Edinburgh.

Irish passport to poetry and peace

June 17, 2018 by Fay Young 1 Comment

Travelling light, I’m sitting on the train when I remember that last minute packing left no time for this month’s Sceptical Scot poetry blogpost. A routine check of essential documents finds an answer. Irish passport to the rescue. [This post was first written, on the train to London, in June 2018 when Boris Johnson was […]

The prime that never comes: on Muriel Spark’s Miss Jean Brodie

February 20, 2018 by David McAllister Leave a Comment

‘School holds a fascination long after we leave it because it is so often the last time many people feel themselves emerging as individuals. By adulthood, the terms of who we are and what we decide to do are expected to be firmly set….And so when, in Edinburgh, we are asked: ‘what school did you go to?’ the question perhaps belies a deeper subtext: ‘who were you, before you made the choice?’

Remembering Bob Tait and the radical 60s

February 12, 2018 by Richard Crockatt 2 Comments

‘All I knew was that I was getting at least as much of an education from Bob as I was from the University. Bob was only four years older but he was a postgraduate student in philosophy, formidably well read, and in touch with the larger political world of which I was only distantly aware’ – a memoir of our late editorial board member

Poetry Tree and the turning seasons

November 10, 2017 by Fay Young 2 Comments

‘Poetry readings were performed here for Refugee Week.  Poetry postcards offered to passers by on National Poetry Day. Poetry twirled on willow stakes in the garden. Poetry projected on to the plinth of the Melville Monument and hung on buildings under construction around the square’. But no more…?

Mind the time? Football memories

September 22, 2017 by Gordon Munro Leave a Comment

A Royal Mail stamp bearing image of Bobby Moore: image footysphere CC By-SA.20

“I come along with a confused man and leave with my husband.” Gordon Munro reviews Mind the Time, a poetry project using football memories to enhance the lives of people with dementia and those closest to them.

Making another world possible: a tribute to Word Power Books

February 18, 2017 by Justin Reynolds Leave a Comment

Inside Word Power Books

A book lover pays tribute to Word Power Books, the Edinburgh independent bookseller whose closure was announced this week.

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

About Sceptical Scot

Welcome to Sceptical Scot, Scotland’s premier non-tribal forum for passionate, informed debate. Sceptical Scot is for all who care about Scotland’s future, regardless of how they vote: for party, independence or union, EU or Brexit. We aim to provide an arena that is both broader and deeper than current online/print offers with a rich diet of well-researched, polemical, thought-provoking writing. Read more » about About Sceptical Scot

What’s new on Sceptical Scot

  • Scotland needs a new politics – and fresh policy options March 17, 2023
  • What does Hunt’s first Budget mean for Scotland? March 16, 2023
  • ChatGPT, you’re fired! March 14, 2023
  • Impartiality and public service media March 13, 2023
  • SNP leadership election: what about indy in Europe? March 8, 2023
  • Taking the border out of politics March 8, 2023
  • Are Europe’s independence movements dead? March 5, 2023
  • Why Labour should adopt a two-stage approach to Lords reform March 5, 2023
  • Will the Assembly of Nations and Regions fly? March 1, 2023
  • Prospects for future fiscal devolution? February 25, 2023

The Sceptical Newsletter

The Sceptical Scot cartoon

Categories

  • Articles (663)
  • Blog (539)
  • Books & Poetry (26)
  • Brexit (205)
  • climate crisis (5)
  • climate crisis (27)
  • Covid19 (65)
  • Criminal justice (17)
  • Culture (305)
  • Devo20 (1)
  • Economics (190)
  • Economy (108)
  • Education (75)
  • Elections (187)
  • Environment (66)
  • European Union (259)
  • Featured (41)
  • Federalism (19)
  • federalism (13)
  • Health (63)
  • History (69)
  • Housing (23)
  • Humour (11)
  • identity (14)
  • Independence (277)
  • Inequality (76)
  • International (36)
  • Ireland (8)
  • Ireland (6)
  • Local government (82)
  • Longer reads (72)
  • Media (11)
  • Podcast (3)
  • Poetry (72)
  • Policy (216)
  • Politics (340)
  • Polls and quizzes (1)
  • Reviews (24)
  • Social democracy (84)
  • Trump (10)
  • UK (344)
  • Uncategorized (6)

Sceptical Scot elsewhere

Facebook
Twitter

Footer

About Sceptical Scot

Since 2014 Sceptical Scot has offered a non-tribal forum for passionate, informed debate for all who care about Scotland’s future

Recommended

  • Bella Caledonia
  • Centre on Constitutional Change
  • The UK in a Changing Europe
  • Common Space
  • Gerry Hassan
  • Scottish Review
  • Social Europe
  • Think Scotland

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...