Coffee-Table Notes

Roddy Lumsden is dead. This isn’t the first time that phrase has been written down. With an upper-case ‘D’ on the fourth word, it was the title the St Andrews-born poet gave to his third collection published in 2003. The book contains a sequence of 42 poems under that collective title, which began with a piece called My Pain and ended with one called My Spring. This time, alas, it’s for real. The lower-case ‘d’ is the giveaway. It’s the sort of semantic detail that might have mattered to him. Either way, as of January 10 th 2020, Roddy Lumsden is dead, and one of the greatest poets – some might say the greatest – of his generation writing in English has left the building aged a far-too-soon 53. Roddy’s death isn’t much of a surprise. He’d been seriously ill for four years, and for the last two lived in a care home. But for anyone who knew him, read him or fan-boy-and-girled him from afar, it still hurts. Roddy’s poetry was a beguiling glimpse into the strange and complex world o

You won’t see Niall Greig Fulton’s face in the trailer for The Turning, Canadian maverick Floria Sigismondi’s new Steven Spielberg produced contemporary reboot of Henry James’ gothic thriller, The Turning of the Screw. Sigismondi’s film goes on general release next week after receiving its world premiere at legendary movie emporium the TLC Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Only then will Fulton will be revealed both onscreen and in person. Keen film and TV watchers will recognise Fulton already, however, whether from a few episodes of Outlander and an appearance in Terence Davies’ version of Sunset Song, to more culty stuff and low-budget horror flicks. More recently Fulton appeared in David Mackenzie’s Scottish history romp, Outlaw King, and in Muscle, directed by Gerard Johnson. He makes a very special cameo as Satan in Good Omens, Douglas Mackinnon’s mini-series based on Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s apocalyptic comedy. Given that his CGI-constructed ap