Coffee-Table Notes

When poet Roddy Lumsden died in 2020 aged 53, it called time on a mercurial figure, whose work impacted worlds beyond the rarefied literary circuit. This should be in evidence at Mischief Night, which commemorates what would have been Lumsden’s sixtieth birthday in the same venue he launched his first collection, Yeah Yeah Yeah, in 1997.   Named after Lumsden’s 2004 book, while Mischief Night will of course feature poetry, there will also be a focus on his other obsessions. This will come in the form of a quiz, and will feature a soundtrack drawn from his substantial collection of 7-inch singles. The latter will be played by those behind a weekly event called Sleepless Nights. This was a Thursday night vinyl only happening that took place at Edinburgh’s now long lost St. James Oyster Bar, and which featured the sort of left-field obscurities that fired Lumsden’s own musical tastes. Requests are being taken on the event website.   As unofficial writer in residence at St. J, Lum...

An internationally renowned Scottish writer who bequeathed his library to the French town where he lived for more than forty years on the proviso that his former home be retained as ‘a place of inspiration, a place of life and thought’ has had his wishes overturned by the local municipality. Glasgow born poet and academic Kenneth White, who died in 2023 aged 87, also donated EURO100,000 (£86,277.81) to the  council to enable his wishes to create a Kenneth White Residence for Artists and Writers.    The Trébeurden Council in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in north western France now has plans to sell the house along with the vast collection of books it currently contains. At a meeting in January this year, Trébeurden’s mayor Bénédicte Boiron declared that “The most likely future of the house will be a sale…. A complete inventory will be carried out. Books can't stay in the house.”   This has prompted outrage amongst the international...

Doon Mackichan is an actress and writer who partly grew up in Fife. She has been a regular in iconic comedy shows on TV, including The Day Today, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Brass Eye and Toast of London. co-created and starred with Fiona Allen and Sally Phillips in all-woman sketch show, Smack the Pony (1999-2003). On stage she has appeared at the Royal Court, the Royal National Theatre and on the West End, and brought her adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She starred in the first five series’ of Two Doors Down, and has just filmed the seventh. My Lady Parts is her first book.   Hi Doon, congratulations on My Lady Parts. You’ve just filmed the new series of Two Doors Down as well. How are you feeling about both?   I am extremely excited. I took a year off Two Doors Down last year, and it was wonderful to be back and to realise how much I've been missed. They say pride before a fall, but I'm very proud of this book, whic...

Hannah Lavery didn’t choose the title of ‘Scotland, You’re No Mine’, the Edinburgh International Book Festival event the capital’s recently appointed Makar takes part in at the end of the month. The title comes from the name of one of the key poems in   Blood Salt Spring (2022), Lavery’s debut full-length collection, and is one of the oldest poems in the book.    ‘Scotland, You’re No Mine’’s evocation of Lavery’s love/hate relationship with the country she lives in had already appeared in slightly different forms, both in Lavery’s pamphlet,  Finding Seaglass: Poems from The Drift (2019), and in her poetic drama,  The Drift (2018) itself. The poem has also become one of her most popular works, being named in 2019 as one of Scotland’s favourite poems.   “It's a poem that people often request of me,” says Lavery, “so it’s obviously had a resonance, but I suppose it’s quite a big poem, in that it's talking about colonialism, Scotland's history and it’s place wi...

Getting   an   audience   with   Norman   MacCaig   isn‘t   easy   these   days.   At   the   grand   old   age   of   85.   though,  you   can‘t   really   blame   this   most   down-to-earth of   Scotland‘s   literary   elder   statesmen   for   not   wanting   to   be   bothered.   For   years.   he   has   put   up   with   an   endless   round   of   newspaper   profiles   and   constant   questioning   about   his   poetry   when   he‘d   much   rather   be   left   alone   to   write   it.   Nevertheless.   his   output   has   been   vast.   Some   23   volumes   have   been   filled   with   works ...