Background Paper 3 (Proposed Housing Developments, Dykebar)

By Morag Smith An indicative masterplan has been prepared for this teenage Devil’s Playground where gargoyles smile from burrs on trees and lockdown lovers kiss in the patients’ garden, slow-grown, gone in a blink Garlic. Daisy. Hawksbeard. Bluebell. Owners confirm the overgrown buildings are surplus to current operational needs Life overwinters in rubble, dead... Read More

Breathe

By Gemma Livingstone Seven decades ago I began to breathe A new life watching over a new house Part of a new estate being built The town growing into the green belt The houses spewed black smoke as coal fires burnt The cars pumped out an awful smell into the air And when I... Read More

Book Review: Scabby Queen by Kirstin Innes

Reviewed by Keira Brown, co-producer of the Paisley Book Festival After winning Not The Booker Prize with Fishnet in 2015, Lochwinnoch-based Kirstin Innes has exceeded the anticipation surrounding her new novel, Scabby Queen, In fact, five years later, she’s delivered an even better novel than her protagonist, Clio Campbell, does an album in this... Read More

Book Review: Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan

Reviewed by Keira Brown, co-producer of the Paisley Book Festival Andrew O’Hagan has done it again. Ever since reading The Illuminations, I have noted this author’s ability to revolve novels around sensitive subjects. Anchored by a succinct voice and wonderful characterisation, he does so marvellously in Mayflies. It’s Summer 1986 in the west coast... Read More