Category Archives: elderblog

Interview for Gentleman

(Gentleman is an Indian magazine: about ten years ago, my old pal from Kolkatta, Debanjan Chakrabarti, wrote up this interview based on my last trip to India. I was just getting some poems together for my next trip — next … Continue reading

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This is the artefact(oid)

(Another slightly updated elderly posting which would seem to want to live out its limited readership on this blog.) I was trying to distinguish my various sites from each other using only the power of my feeble brain (which resembles … Continue reading

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The Roman Spork

(An old facebook note that felt a bit out on a limb back there, deep under the surface of the idiot moment.) Those of us who, due to organisational ineptness, have found themselves trying to eat spaghetti with a spoon, … Continue reading

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Contemporary Scottish Poetry

(This piece was written for the Poetry International Website as part of an editorial job undertaken at the request of the Poetry Society in 2006. I posted new work by Tracey Herd and David Kinloch. It’s a little compressed — … Continue reading

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A Turbulent Makar

(This piece on Edwin Morgan’s Scottish Laureateship was written in November 2005 for a small magazine the name and a copy of which continues to evade me.) The idea of a poet laureate carries with it some interesting preconceptions. Although … Continue reading

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Holocaust Memorial Day Reading

(This piece was written in February 2005 for the Blinking Eye website. I was judging their competition, and they asked me for something for the site. Every year for the last three years the writers associated with Newcastle University — … Continue reading

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Root and Graft

(This piece was written in November 2004 in response to a request from Beeb2’s Culture Show for a take on the NE’s literary scene. It didn’t take. But it roughs out the idea that there is in the UK a cultural … Continue reading

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Scotlit’s subliminal awards

(A version of this article appeared in Scotland on Sunday in January 2004. It reflects on the shift in policy on the part of the Scottish Arts Council from giving a series of small awards to giving one large one.) … Continue reading

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