www.list.co.uk/books

Events

Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least ten days before publication to suzanne.black@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Suzanne Black. Thursday 11

Edinburgh FREE The Space of The Page Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. Until Sat 20 Dec: Mon–Fri 11am–6pm, Sat 1–5pm. Starting with Stéphane Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés, curators Thomas A Clark and Julie Johnstone take a look at the relationship between poem and page, and what the page can add, in this exhibition drawing on the works of Charles Olson, Eugen Gomringer, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Edwin Morgan and more. FREE Sheila McConachie and Graham Harvey Blackwells, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. Noon–2pm. Ticketed. Sheila McConachie and Graham Harvey explain the art of getting tipsy in the kitchen with cooking demonstrations and tastings from their book, The Whisky Kitchen.

✽✽ FREE Charles Stross Waterstone’s, 128 Princes Street,

226 2666. 6–7.30pm. Ticketed. Based in Edinburgh, the sci-fi scribe Charles Stross reads from and signs his new book, The Clan Corporate. FREE The Ultimate Guide to the Munros: Southern Highlands TISO: The Outdoor Specialist, 123 Rose Street, 225 9486. 6pm. Launch of the first in a new series of books about the Munros. FREE Christian Lange Blackwells, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6.30pm. Ticketed. Readings in German and Persian plus live music to launch Christian Lange’s debut novel Der Geheime Name Gottes (The Secret Name of God).

Friday 12

Edinburgh FREE Major General Andrew Mackay Blackwells, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6.30pm. Major General Andrew Mackay speaks about Helmand by photographer Robert Wilson, who spent six months with the 52nd Infantry Brigade while it was leading the British task force in the southern Afghanistan war zone.

Saturday 13 Glasgow Ceol’s Craic CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 6pm. £8 (£6). Monthly Gaelic club and platform for Gaelic art and culture.

Edinburgh ✽✽ FREE PG Wodehouse Stories Peter Bell Books, 68 West Port, 229

0562. 5pm. What ho, Jeeves? Owen Dudley Edwards performs a dramatic recitation of a PG Wodehouse story. Bring your own cushion. Tickets in advance from tickets@westportbookfestival.org. FREE West Port Book Festival Christmas Party! Edinburgh Books,

Check out the GreatOffers on page 6

Comics Books

145–147 West Port, 229 4431. 6.30pm. Festive merriment and literary chat. The organisers are requesting that all visitors furnish them with mince pies, mulled wine, other kinds of wine and soft drinks. Or an imaginative and involved reason for being empty handed. Tickets are required in advance from tickets@westportbookfestival.org.

Monday 15 Edinburgh FREE Reading Group: Round Table Central Library, George IV Bridge, 242 8000. 6–8pm. Ticketed. An informal poetry reading group that encourages lively debate and offers members the chance to choose the poems. For booking and more details please phone or email reception@spl.org.uk. Please note change of venue.

Tuesday 16

Glasgow ✽✽ Janice Galloway Lost in Fiction, 114 Byres Road, 337

3075. 7–9pm. £6 (£5). The celebrated Scottish writer talks about her work, including her memoir, This is Not About Me.

Edinburgh Reading Group: Nothing But The Poem Central Library, George IV Bridge, 242 8000. 6.30pm. £5 (£3). Removing the pressures of review, criticism and hype, and without relying on background knowledge, this gentle reading group led by Julie Johnstone focuses on the reader’s response to the text. For booking and more details please phone or email reception@spl.org.uk. Please note change of venue. Thursday 18

Edinburgh FREE Two Masterpieces, One Chance: An Evening of Music and Poetry National Gallery of Scotland Complex, The Mound, 624 6200. 5.30–6pm & 6.30–7pm. Live poetry performances of the tales of Actaeon and Callisto from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, read by John Duncan and atmospherically set in front of Titian’s paintings Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto. In between the two readings, the Edinburgh University Renaissance Singers will perform works from the Italian Renaissance. (6–6.30pm).

Tuesday 23

Glasgow FREE Paul Henke: Havoc Borders Books, Fort Retail Park, 390 Provan Walk, 773 2910. 10am. Persuasive former Royal Naval commander Paul Henke appears instore to promote his books.

Wednesday 24 Glasgow FREE Paul Henke: Havoc Borders Books, Fort Retail Park, 390 Provan Walk, 773 2910. 10am. See Tue 23.

Friday 26

Edinburgh The Guid Crack Club Waverley Bar, 1 St Mary’s Street, 556 9579. 7.30pm. Suggested donation £3. Locals and visitors alike are welcome to go along and hear some festive yarns as well as contributing a few of their own if they wish.

Comics FOOTIE VARIOUS The Bumper Book of Roy of the Rovers (Titan) ●●●●●

Splitting your defences with a timely ‘gosh’, ‘heck’ and ‘thunderation’, this collection of Roy Race’s adventures from the years 1958-71 should send a tingle down the spine of anyone who ever picked up the comic. Melchester Rovers’ most famous son played for the red and yellow stripped icons for a mere 39 years until the amputation of his deadly left foot in 1993 and while he is the obvious centrepiece, The Bumper Book shows that there was more to Roy of the Rovers than our mulleted blonde hero step forward his glamourous wife Penny and trusty team-mate Blackie Gray.

The classic ‘If You Were the Ref’ features some dilemmas for the match officials, ‘Penalty’ has fun facts about spot kicks and we even get the history of Bobby Charlton (a consultant on the strip in the early 60s). Unintentionally hilarious, gloriously nostalgic and occasionally bonkers, this should get you into some Race relations. (Brian Donaldson)

SCI-FI PAT MILLS & VARIOUS The Complete Ro-Busters (Rebellion) ●●●●●

Starting out in 2000AD’s sister mag Starlord (before jumping ship when Starlord folded to its more successful sibling), Ro-Busters was a more cynical version of Thunderbirds. They are an all-robot search and rescue team run by Mr 10 Percent, a human who has replaced so

much of his body only his brain remains, who deploys Ro-Busters only if the price is right and revels in their expendable, mechanised nature. The main characters Ro-Jaws (a garbage disposal droid) and Hammerstein (a war droid) bring a cutting sarcasm to their roles as reluctant saviours.

All written by Pat Mills (with some back up stories by Alan Moore) added together with art from Kevin O’Neil, Mike McMahon, Dave Gibbons and other Brit comics luminaries and you have a winning package. (Henry Northmore)

SPY THRILLER JIM LAWRENCE AND JOHN MCLUSKY & YAROSLAV HORAK James Bond 007: Polestar (Titan) ●●●●●

Amidst the furious modernism of Daniel Craig’s James Bond incarnation, it’s becoming easier to forget just what a retro thrill the character was for so many years. This collection celebrates a vision of the character from the most sadly outmoded of comic book media, the newspaper serial, which ran from ‘58 until ‘77 in the Daily Express (and latterly the Sunday Express), then returned in the Daily Star from ‘81 to ‘83. Polestar features the last two Star stories, and three serials which were only syndicated outside the UK.

Given their vintage, these tales are (mostly) endearingly time-locked. Fortunately the classic spirit of Connery is invoked more than the cartoonishness of Moore, but there are also sections of gratuitous female nudity and almost subliminal sexism, while Bond more amusingly often goes about his business with a fag hanging from his lips. Although the jagged monochrome art is suitably pulpy, the pacing of each two or three- panel installment doesn’t quite lend itself to collected reading. (David Pollock)

AUTOBIOGRAPHY DAVID HEATLEY My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Johnathan Cape) ●●●●●

It’s not unusual for an artist to use their life as source material. David Heatley has taken this autobiographical conceit to an altogether more meticulous end: he has taken entire hunks of his life and reproduced them in their entirety, graphically. Depicting a complete history of every notable sexual encounter he has ever had from first prepubescent stirrings through saucy dreams and teen crushes to his current wife is an exercise in extremes that borders on the bewildering. This is consolidated when he moves on to detail every black person he has ever had contact with in his life, every dream he has ever remembered and topped off with intimate character sketches of his parents.

Heatley’s book is an admirable feat, but the sheer weight of detail destroys any possibility of a real narrative. The art is primitive, but addictive, like witnessing OCD in graphic novel form. (Mark Robertson)

11 Dec 2008–8 Jan 2009 THE LIST 39