I’ve long admired Annie Lennox, both for the gutsy emotional honesty of her music and her commitment to human rights campaigning (not to mention my Eighties nostalgia for all those insanely danceable Eurythmics riffs). So when I got the chance to interview her for the December issue of Third Way magazine, I decided to dig a…
First published on the Fathers’ Network Scotland Website “Daddy?” “Yes, love?” Story time is over, and the lights are out – but I’ve noticed my six-year-old son often uses his last waking moments to bowl me the kind of question that might stump a philosophy graduate. Past belters have included: Is the Evil Vilgax (from Ben…
Check out this great song by the Roches. Apparently it comes from a list of “paradoxical commandments” first penned by a guy called Kent Keith and since adopted by folks ranging from Steven Covey to Mother Theresa. Stick them on your computer for those days that feel as if you’re pushing rocks up hill… Anyway People are…
BBC link to This Solitary Bird Not long after my friend Will McMillan passed away in 2005 (see The Saving Grace), I began to consider writing about him. His angry public outbursts were no secret, but I knew a much deeper, more generous man too and wanted to commemorate his short but vigorous life….
Journalist Nick Thorpe tells of the inspiration for his new play – an unexpected friendship formed at the margins of society. When I first saw Will McMillan, he was wearing a battered overcoat, a silk cravat and a frown which hung like forked lightning above the storm cloud of his beard. He struck me as…
This Solitary Bird, my first radio play went out today on BBC Radio Scotland. It’s a fictionalised story of an unusual friendship formed at the margins of society, based loosely on my late friend Will McMillan. I met him soon after I arrived in Edinburgh 18 years ago to work as a cub reporter on the Edinburgh…
Edinburgh Launch of Urban Worrier Tues 7th June, 6.30pm Blackwell’s Bookshop 52-63 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1YS Ticketed but free Calling all Urban Worriers! Do you ever wish life could be a little less stressful? Well come and join the club! In less than a week my new book will hit the bookshelves and I’m hoping…
With less than a week until Urban Worrier goes on sale, I noticiced this morning that Amazon is doing a big opening offer for those who pre-order the book: reduced from £13.99 to £7.75 – so you’re almost getting two for the cover price of one. With my business hat on, I should probably avoid…
Somehow dragged myself out of bed at 5.30am today for a live interview at BBC Radio Scotland in Edinburgh on Sunday Morning with Sally Magnusson. Given the hour, Sally thankfully went a whole lot easier on me than all the politicians she grilled during the recent Scottish elections. In fact we meandered our way through a…
I’ve just finished reading The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman, a tragicomic novel about eleven lives connected to one newspaper as print journalism enters its death-throes. Rachman, a former journalist himself, deservedly won rave reviews for this first work of fiction, which stirred in me emotions not commonly associated with the media: compassion, affection, gentle humour….