Get your kicks in '26
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2026 finds you all well, fulfilled and not, hopefully, randomly invading other people's countries to make oil company CEOs richer than they already are... This is just a quick look back on the year recently passed, and forward to my bookish plans for the coming year. 2025, despite its many flaws on a global scale, was a hugely satisfying year for me as a writer. 'How Soon Is Now?' continued to find new readers and attracted some lovely reviews
Jan 43 min read
For Steven, on his birthday
Steven, right, with his brother and sisters in the early 1970s. This is probably while we were staying in Thurso when our dad was working at the nearby Dounreay nuclear plant. Picture improved by a kind soul on Twitter whose name I can't find. I had a brother, once. His name was Steven and today he would have been 63 years old. The second of my parents' four children and their first son, he loved music, comedy and football. Football never really stuck for me, but Steven defin
Dec 5, 20254 min read
The comfort of concrete
The approach to Cumbernauld town centre, in the early 1970s. Cumbernauld town centre does not, to put it mildly, get a good press – but I'll always have massive affection for the place, in all its harsh, leaky, concrete-heavy glory. Built in phases starting in 1963, it's a towering, brutalist gathering of mismatched clumps which looks like it was jammed together by a band of Lego-obsessed giants of varying talent and temperament. It was named 'Britain's most hated building' i
Nov 1, 20255 min read
