First of all, my novel Pack Men has been shortlisted for Scotland’s largest literary prize, the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards 2012, in the Fiction category. I’m delighted, obviously, although it’s up against stiff opposition in the form of Jane Harris, Zoe Strachan, Ali Smith and J.M.Ledgerd, so I’m not expecting to win. Still, it’s nice, isn’t it?
The paperback of Pack Men is released later this month, and is garlanded with lovely review quotes, which I’m not going to repeat her cos I’d look like a knob (BUT THEY’RE AMAZING!!!!) so please do make a Falkirk boy very happy and pick up a copy. It’s a pacy read. You’ll get through it a night. You’ll get through it in a bath (although you may have to keep topping it up with hot water).
I’ll be bringing my new solo show, The Red Hourglassto the Edinburgh Fringe this August (more details later) but before then, here’s where you can catch me, like, LIVE and IN THE FLESH!
13th May, 12pm, Talk with Owen Jones, HighTide Festival, Suffolk.
May 24th, 7pm, Behind the Wall, Falkirk. I’ll be appearing with the awesome Dickson Telfer, as well as he and my brother Ronnie’s excellent band, Artisan.
May 26th, 12.30pm, Dumfries and Galloway Literary Festival,Fleet.
June 1st, 7.30pm, Cafe Su Casa, Ayr. Burns n’ aw That Festival.
Okay persons out there, just to keep you updated with what’s happening in Bissettland (nice to visit, btw, but you wouldn’t want to live there). Writing-wise, I’m working on the screenplay to my first novel, Boyracers, and have scripted a pilot episode of The Moira Monologues for the BBC. I’m optimistic about both of these things being shot.
The performing itch has come back though, resulting in my first new show since Moira. The Red Hourglass finds me playing five different parts: three male, two female, none of them human. There’s going to be an Edinburgh Fringe run in the summer, but in the meantime I’ll be doing a scripted reading for the National Theatre of Scotland’s Reveal season at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, on May 2nd-3rd. Come along if you can’t wait til August. You may see one of these:
Secondly, I’ll be appearing every day at 1pm in Dear Glasgow as part of Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and a Pint series, from Mon Apr 23rd to Sat 28th. The play will comprise of letters delivered to the Scottish people from the Arab world, and promises to be powerful.
And for those of you who are writers, I’ll be discussing my creative process at the CCA (Sauchiehall St, Glasgow) for the Scottish Writers’ Centre in a free event at 7pm on Thurs Apr 12th.
Finally, on Thurs Apr 19th, I’ll be hosting two of China’s most famous writers, Xu Zechen and Annie Baobei, ‘in conversation’ at the Confucius Institute for Scotland, in Edinburgh at 6pm. Read all about it here.
Oh, and, while I’m here. Support Scottish independence. Here’s why I’m backing it.
Here’s where I’m going to be saying things in public. Readings, politics, and the like. Come along and heckle.
Jan 27th (Fri) 7pm @ HarbourArts Centre, Irvine. Reading from novels. Jan 30th (Mon) 8pm @ The Dram, Woodlands Rd, Glasgow, for Glasgow Uni Lit Soc. Feb 11th (Sat) 7.30pm @ The Berkley Suites, Charing Cross, Glasgow, for ‘Frames Per Second’ as part of Glasgow Short Film Festival. Adam Stafford and I will be performing a live version of our award-winning short film, ‘The Shutdown’. 15th Feb (Wed) 6pm @ 32 University Avenue, Glasgow Uni. Talk on ‘Scotland, Politics & Culture’. 21st Feb (Tues) 9pm @ The Ubiquitous Chip, Ashton Lane, Glasgow. Reading from novels. 22nd Feb (Wed) time tbc @ The Stand Comedy Club, Glasgow, for SNP Youth Comedy Night. 26th Feb (Sun) 6pm @ Oran Mor, as part of cast of Alasdair Gray’s play ‘Fleck’, for Margins Book Festival. 10th March (Sat) 5pm @ Mitchell Library, Glasgow, delivering keynote address w/Zoe Strachan & Ewan Morrison for ‘Write Now’ conference as part of Aye Write! festival. 10th March (Sat) 7.30pm @ Reading Room, Blairlogie, for launch of Dickson Telfer’s book ‘Killing a Spider’. 11th March (Sun) 3.30pm, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, as part of Aye Write! festival. Talk on ‘Football & Sectarianism’ w/ Rodge Glass and Richard Wilson.
Vote with your love for the Queen who nurtured you, cradle to grave,
Who protects you and cares, her most darling subjects, to whom you gave
the glens she adores to roam freely through, the stags her children so dearly enjoy killing.
First into battle, loyal and true. The enemy’s scared of you.
That’s why we send you over the top with your och-aye-the-noo Mactivish there’s been a murrrderrr jings! crivvens! Deepfriedfuckinmarsbar wee wee dram of whisky hoots mon there’s a moose loose aboot this smackaddict
Vote Labour. New Labour. Old Labour. Scottish Labour.
(Get back in line, Scottish Labour, HQ in Solihull will issue their commands shortly,
Just keep the vote coming in from up there thanks goodbye,
Subsidy junkie).
Vote for any argument you construct in your defence being ‘anti-English’.
Vote for Scots who make their career in Scotland being ‘unambitious’.
Vote for enjoying your own culture being soooooooo parochial.
Vote God Save the Queen and that bit about us crushing you all.
Hush. There there.
Vote for Scotland being refered to as a ‘region’, like, say, Yorkshire? Or East Anglia?
Vote for our voices dominating your media, but in no way telling you what to think.
Take a drink. Go on, son, take a drink.
Vote for oil revenue, which we ensure flows directly from us into you.
Vote for being told you’re the only country in the world that could not possibly survive and that without us you’d fall to pieces like children abandoned in the wild, caked in faeces.
Vote Daily Mail and Rupert Murdoch and
illegalimmigrantskilledPrincessDiana and
London London London most exciting city in the world darling
(Glasgow is a very violent place, is it not. Do you have art?)
being on the right side just once and that’s only because it was against yer actual fucking Hitler
Vote for the #ScottishConspiracy at Westminster
(who really runs the show here eh – Blair, Brown – got your own in that time, we aren’t allowed to vote in Holyrood but there’s Archie McPhee pulling wee strings in our parliament when we wouldn’t even think about interfering in how you run your own affairs but while we’re at it, this referendum eh? A so-called referendum, is it? Have it now, make sure it looks like this)
Vote for very, very, very rich people patronising you.
Vote for Glasgow having the highest knife-crime rate and lowest life expectancy in Europe
due to our generosity. You may thank us at your leisure.
Vote for the absence of your history in our schools.
All Brits together.
Vote for our shock at your ingratitude!
Vote for us saying ‘Eh? Eh?’ when you open up your porridge mooth.
Vote for bafflement about why you want the England football team to lose.
We always want the Scots to win (except in referenda).
Vote for psychopathic villains with your accent in a soap opera.
Vote for tuition fees and student loans, ensuring that the brightest of your working-class
(since you still insist upon the term, although Our Leaders had it banned)
will one day rise and take their place in this great land.
Vote for us deploying strategic references to Braveheart to dismiss you all.
Vote for Robert Burns being called by Paxman ‘sentimental doggerel’.
Vote for The Iron Lady. Such a strong leader, gave this country backbone
(you didn’t really want the unions, industries or council homes, just made the place look tatty)
Vote for a deregulated banking class, lionising of the hardworkingwealthgeneratingjobcreatingentrepreneurs
who you will in no way refer to as ‘greedy, selfish bastards’. Give them your taxes.
Vote for foreign wars.
Yes, sadly, some of you will die. But you will return to a hero’s welcome
Jock
the Union Jack, proud symbol of integrity and honour, draped across your coffin
while your mother, dabbing at her eyes, recalls the words she learned in school
in Kircudbright
‘There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.’
I was awarded the title Scottish Writer of the Year at the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards last night. I was up against amazing writers like Jackie Kay, Denise Mina and Julia Donaldson, so was stunned when Ian Rankin read out my name. Thanks to everyone who voted for me. Man, what a year!
I’ve been shortlisted for a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award 2011, which is rather lovely. It’s a much sought-after award, as it recognises achievement by Scots not only in literature, but in Food, the Environment, Business, Music, Sport, Art and Film. In the Writing category I’m up against Denise Mina, Jackie Kay and Julia Donaldson, who are all amazing, and we are planning to sit at the same table, get drunk and all bet on each other winning. Cannay wait. Anyway, if you’d care to, you can vote for me here.
The Shutdown, the short film that I made with Adam Stafford, has also been shortlisted for a Scottish BAFTA. Results announced on Nov 13th.
You can also hear a ‘career retrospective’ hour long podcast with me and Alasdair Braidwood from the ever excellent Scots Whay Hae. There’s a whole lot of Bissett to listen to on the ‘Fifth Podcast’ here.
The reviews for my new novel, Pack Men, have been the best of my career so far. These are some of the highlights:
‘Bissett was there, and his novel vividly recalls the so-called Battle of Piccadilly…Casts an unsparing eye over the sectarian pollution of Scottish society.’ – The Guardian
‘Bissett writes subtly, intelligently and also passionately about men. An outstanding novel.’ – Scotland on Sunday
‘A landmark in Scottish fiction. A unique and special novel. I honestly haven’t read anything as impressive as this from a Scottish writer in yonks’ – Irvine Welsh
‘Alan Bissett somehow invests an originality and freshness that’s uncommon in a genre so often hackneyed…Bissett’s ear for cut and thrust, for chiv-sharp wit and tinder-dry insult is incisive, pitch-perfect, informed. While the sentiments may be crude, the writing is subtle, well paced, authentic and compelling. The reader is white-water rafting on a cesspit-flow of verbal regurgitation, repelled, but riveted by the ride… What most impresses is Bissett’s talent. His writing is underscored with wit and, against the odds, he imbues almost all of his characters with dignity, with the force to act against type – especially in a breathtaking, breakaway, counter-intuitive which climax makes you gasp.’ – The Scotsman
‘A blistering, adrenaline-fuelled romp. Should be required reading for both sets of Old Firm supporters, as well as anyone interested in 21st Century Scotland.’ – Doug Johnstone, The List
‘Pack Men does what the author’s previous novels do so well: shines a light into the darkest corners of male psychology and behaviour, and finds, underneath the scorn and suffering, redeeming humanity. Told with narrative flair and demotic brilliance, this is a hugely funny, ruthlessly honest, and desperately necessary book. Bissett’s characters are complex, questioning, and always capable of surprising each other and the reader. One of the funniest, most humane and insightful writers today. Pack Men tackles an unsavoury subject with courage and compassion.’ – Sarah Hall, The Big Issue in the North
‘Pack Men is a wry, entertaining and mature work…Bissett succeeds in making us root for the most unlikely of antiheroes, even as he implodes’ – Scottish Review of Books
‘If Scotland’s father of working class consciousness, James Kelman, had a literary son it might be Alan Bissett…funny, irreverent and moving.’ – Gutter
And here are some reviews from the blogosphere.
‘A hugely impressive novel…Alan Bissett has once more held a mirror up to Scottish society.’ – Scots Whay Hae!
‘Real, very honest, heartfelt, witty, hilarious, clever…tender too, full of conviction and affection.’ – Subtle Melodrama
‘Plays with your expectations and gradually pulls you to places you didn’t expect.’ – Curious Joe
I’m currently on tour promoting the book. See below for dates. Come along and make me even happier!
