You're quite right, Robin - Edinburgh has a cultural glow which reaches
London. Glasgow is too complicated perhaps, and while MacIlvanney is still
regarded it's in a quiet way - and Jim Kelman of course...he won the Booker
prize once, but Glasgow Council and most other people were really rude to
him.
Actually Glasgow is a brilliant place if you go there, these days, but maybe
its intellectual leadership has been a bit lacking? if I dare say such a
thing.
We live 35 miles from Glasgow and 50 miles from Edinburgh, but we still go
to Edinburgh much more often, even though I had more than enough of it
bringing up two children there, and working there, etc. Edin actually seems
much bigger than Glasgow in some essential way. yet Glasgow is more
unbuttoned, more fashionable. Its a fascinating topic. (And you get people
called WIGLIEs and LIGWIEs - work that one out!)
Sally Evans
http://www.poetryscotland.co.uk
http://groups.msn.com/desktopsallye
http://www.myspace.com/poetsallyevans
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 2:12 AM
Subject: Re: Scottish fiction & Irn-Bru
> ... of course, well before Rankin with Rebus, William McIlvanney was
> already writing Glasgow noir detective fiction.
>
> But nobody cares about John the Baptist.
>
> Ian Hamilton Findlay's _Glasgow Beasts, an a Burd ..._ was couthy and
> funny, but it all really started with Tom Leonard's "Six Glasgow Poems".
>
> There's a fairly comprehensive collection (even I get included!) if anyone
> wants to track urban Glasgow poetry, in Hamish Whyte's anthology, _Noise
> and Smoky Breath_.
>
> The contentious text, when it comes to dating, is Stephen Mulrine's "The
> Coming of the Wee Malkies".
>
> Robin
>
> {Oh and of course, let's not forget Carl MacDougall's "Cod Liver Oil and
> the Orange Juice" -- though the textual variants of that are quite
> baroque, putting Langland to shame.
>
> R.}
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sally Evans" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, November 21, 2008 12:44 AM
> Subject: Re: Scottish fiction & Irn-Bru
>
>
>> Oh yes I read the Rebus novels and its great knowing Edinburgh well.
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