RAGIP ZARAKOLU
I first met Ragip Zarakolu six years ago, in Istanbul. I was there as part of a team of international observers to watch his trial - for what? I can't remember the specific charge now, but there are...
View ArticleScottish Writers Cage Edinburgh Makar
Tuesday November 15th marks the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer. PEN international, the global movement of writers, will use this important day to highlight cases of writers who resist...
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Edinburgh Makar Successfully Released on International Day of the Imprisoned...
Jean Rafferty and Drew Campbell drove through from Glasgow last week on the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer. Their first stop was at the Festival Theatre - who had very kindly agreed to lend...
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Tracking Berlioz
CASTLE CORBIE“I have trod the upward and the downward slope”: for me, it was an unabashed nostalgia trip, as precipitous Meylan had been one of my temporary homes. It’s due north of the university...
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Illuminating Libraries
My latest radio play ‘The Lamp’ goes out on BBC Radio Four on 14th December, and has special status as ‘Play Of The Week’ which means that it will also be available as a podcast from Friday 16th for...
View ArticleAnd Then Forever
I recently had a first novel published – good old Shetland Times shouldered the risk – quite surprising myself in the process. I say ‘surprising myself’, because it was not my intention to write a...
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At the Bethlehem Wall
BAFFLED IN BETHLEHEMMay 2010They took my photograph besideThat controversial wall. Beneath the brutal sun we bothStood strong and straight and tall.A cross in white aslant on blueMarks the symbolic...
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Look, no Borders!
Strasbourg, evening light La piste des forts is the name of the bicycle path that goes from Strasbourg, in France, over the Rhine and into Germany. It's well named. If you were not strong before you...
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BIRD OF PASSAGE, The Genesis of a Story
When I was twelve years old, we moved from Leeds to South West Scotland where my scientist father had taken a position in a research institute. Dad had come to England with the army at the...
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Jean Meslier, Priest and Atheist
‘My dear friends, seeing that I would not be permitted and the consequences would be too dangerous and distressing for me to tell you openly during my lifetime what I think about the government of men...
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Special Delivery - Le Facteur Cheval
Palais IdealTom HubbardSpecial DeliveryYou can stumble and tumble upon it while you’re engaged with everyday banalities. It’s the incident, small in itself, which can lead to a triumph of creativity....
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Article 13
Elizabeth Jennings Elizabeth Jennings (1926 – 2001) was a beautiful poem-maker, always low-key, careful construction, often with rhyme and metre, and deep-seated passion. I have several of her books of...
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Article 12
WHAT PRICE THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE by Jean Rafferty, WIPC The Nobel Peace Prize is generally accepted as one of the highest honours a human being can win, a recognition of exceptional courage or...
View ArticleRecollections of early days at Scottish Pen and of a Writing Life
I felt very honoured to be invited to become the next Honorary President of Scottish Pen and was delighted to accept.I published my first adult novel, Liam's Daughter, set in Ireland and France,in...
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A Tale of Two Harriets
Once upon a time there were two authors called Harriet. Superficially they had much in common. Both American, they were born and died within a couple of years of each other. Both were dedicated to...
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House of exile
In February or March this year, International PEN asked members for a few lines on a piece of writing by a woman writer we particularly admired, to mark International Women’s Day on March 8th. You can...
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Shakespeare in Stirling
'As part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 'OPEN STAGES' project, John Coutts has written 'SHAKESPEARE IN STIRLING'; in which the great poet and dramatist makes an undercover visit to Scotland as an...
View ArticleBook Recommendation
Scottish PEN members might like to check out the recent New Island Books release, Banished Babies The Secret Story of Ireland’s Baby Export Business –Updated and Expanded EditionThis is the updated...
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The Joys of Translation
Carl von Linné – or Linnaeus as the world outside Sweden remembers him – was what we would now call a “control-freak”. And like all control-freaks, he was often frustrated by the unwillingness of...
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Marché de la Poésie Saint Sulpice, Paris, June 2012
It’s the 30th Marchéde la Poésie and it takes place in the tree shaded square by the newly renovated church of Saint Sulpice, Paris. There are hundreds of publishing houses represented here, some well...
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