by tim_bell | Jul 8, 2020 | Latest News
Oh dear. Lara Feigel is trying to assemble 10 novels that explore character and friendship. Included are Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, book of the year Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, various other classics – and Trainspotting. Oh dear. The claim...
by tim_bell | Jul 6, 2020 | Uncategorized
This is a reminder – or possibly your first notice – that we would like your entry (or entries) for the Leith Anthology by the end of July. Whether you’ve nearly finished it, with just the final tweaks to get right, or you’ve been putting ideas to steep in your fine...
by tim_bell | Jun 21, 2020 | Latest News
Midsummer day. The solstice. We should mark it more than we do. It’s not just another day. A few years ago on this day I was visiting the coal ships in Leith, and got friendly with a Philippine crew. At 10 o’clock in the evening I was extolling with them...
by tim_bell | Jun 18, 2020 | Latest News
Give Welsh’s Trainspotting a bit of respect for having a broad view of Leith in the 1980s. Spud Murphy, explicitly of Catholic Irish descent, and his mixed-race uncle Dode, are going into the Persevere pub near the foot of Easter Road where the Orange Order and...
by tim_bell | Jun 15, 2020 | Latest News
Exactly three years ago, as MC of the Leith Community Tattoo, I called for the customary minute’s silence following the Last Post to include respect and a call to action for the dead, bereaved and affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower. Later I wrote in my book:...
by tim_bell | Jun 13, 2020 | Latest News
Picture the scene, all as it really happened. On a cold January evening this year, coming out of the City Chambers on Edinburgh High Street I was startled to hear a very loud voice and vivid lights. Turning round, I saw that they had just started the poem with...
by tim_bell | May 29, 2020 | Latest News
I’m drafting out an Author’s Note for the next re-print, or second edition of my book. Amid the C-19 crisis we are forgetting a whole community of people in our streets and right across the world who look set to become reservoirs of the C-19 as well as...
by tim_bell | May 23, 2020 | Latest News
Irvine Welsh, or someone on his behalf, is objecting to a Waitrose poster calling for fruit and veg pickers: PICK GETTING OUT OF THE HOUSE. PICK RAIN. PICK SHINE. PICK FRUIT AND VEG…. PICK PUTTING MONEY IN YOUR POCKET. PICK PUTTING FOOD ON YOUR PLATE… PICK BEING A KEY...
by tim_bell | May 8, 2020 | Latest News
It was awful nice of the RAF to fly over my back garden this morning to mark the day, according to calculations, that I was conceived. Some say they were on their way to Edinburgh Castle for another bit of business, but I know better. Thanks to the founders of the...
by tim_bell | Apr 28, 2020 | Latest News
Aw hell, not that I wish Boris Johnson ill, but his first appearance yesterday on the steps of no 10 after his encounter with C-19 confirmed all the worst we have come to expect. His hyperbolic manner (“I’m not prepared to throw away all the hard work of...
