Culture
Hogmanay hype on drunk women
“Articles and images of drunk young women may reinforce gender stereotypes which should be challenged – the double standards that allow women to be more harshly judged for drunken behaviour than men, for example; and…
A fitting place for Joan Eardley
“Joan Eardley is finally assuming the status she so richly deserves(d): a great Scottish artists who belongs to the world.” She came to Scotland at 19, died tragically young at 42 in 1963 and, half…
Talking Turkeys: five poems for Christmas 2016
At the ragged end of a sorry year Fay Young goes in search of poems for Christmas and finds five offering humour, humanity and even a hint of hope that the world is not definitively…
Imagining a ‘progressive communitarianism’
Communitarianism doesn’t have to be regressive: the pre-war origins of social democracy hold lessons for today’s left.
The relentless present of the future
“One thing is certain: to look at the future and see nothing but an impassable end is destructive in itself. Because, in reality, we’ve always known how the world ends – the same way it…
Discerning the light: a sceptic explores the history of religion
Former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway, whose complex relationship with his own Christian tradition makes him perhaps the quintessential sceptical Scot, explores the history of religion in a new book.
Trainlines of poetry
“There’s romance in railway stations and an emotional tug in the sound of familiar place names. A reminder, I think, of the physical links and feelings joining people in distant places: singular but shared.”
Creative cities: built on can-do culture
“Here’s to the kindling of generous can-do creativity in every town and city. It looks fun but it’s deadly serious too. In the turmoil of Brexit (along with wider global uncertainties), the healthy prosperity of…
Zionism, anti-semitism and the Left
“Rich navigates this exceptionally fraught and emotionally charged terrain with great sensitivity. But on occasion his focus on making plain the nature of leftist anti-Semitism leads him to understate or omit some important elements of…
Winds of change at The Botanics
Inverleith House gallery is to close. Was art sacrificed in a sharper focus on commerce and community at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh?
Jimmy Shand or male adolescent anxiety
“Nobody really knows when they first heard, or heard of, Jimmy Shand. Like the force of gravity or your mother’s maiden name, you cannot recall a time before your awareness of his existence.” On ceilidhs,…
Hidden story behind Scotland’s art
‘Scotland invented Highlandism because its own culture had been ignored by London and suppressed by many leading Scots in the years after Union. Rejecting it is siding with Irvine Welsh’s Rent Boy in Trainspotting saying…