Eggplant.place

201d

An Evening with Graeme Armstrong
5 June, Waterstones Sauchiehall St, Glasgow – £5

Graeme Armstrong delivers a cult classic in the making in RAVEHEART, a whip-smart satirical look at where Britain might be going.

Graeme will talk about the joy of rave, the power of rebellion, & the importance of writing about young people.

https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-graeme-armstrong/glasgow-sauchiehall-street

#Scottish #literature #novel

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228d

Call for papers
Politics, Place & Print Culture: The 14th International Walter Scott Conference
28–30 June 2027, University of Edinburgh

The conference invites papers on any & all aspects of Walter Scott’s relationship to questions of politics, place & print culture

Deadline for proposals: 1 Oct 2026

@litstudies

https://www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6395

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #SirWalterScott #WalterScott #callforpapers #printculture

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227d

Today is the birthday of John Fowles, and it feels like a good moment to return to a writer who made novels feel intimate, troubling, and alive.

His books do not leave the reader untouched. They linger. They raise questions about love, freedom, illusion, loneliness, and the stories people tell themselves just to keep going.

If you have read him, which book stays with you most?

#books #reading #literature #writers
#bookstodon
@bookstodon

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227d

Andrew Lang (1844–1912) was born #OTD, 31 March. An extraordinarily prolific anthropologist, writer & literary critic, he is best remembered today for collecting & editing fairy stories from around the world

A 🎂 🧵

1/6

https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/the-man-of-letters-in-fairyland-andrew-lang/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #kidlit #childrensliterature #fairytale #AndrewLang

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191d

#Reading can support mental health too.

A systematic review of randomized clinical trials found that #bibliotherapy (structured reading used in treatment) can reduce depressive symptoms and may have lasting benefits.

#Books are not a replacement for care when someone needs help, but they can be a real part of healing.

#mentalhealth #literature #readingcommunity #book #booksky #BookTok #booklovers #bookstagram #bookstodon @bookstodon

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226d

Boswell Book Festival 2026
8–10 May, Dumfries House

Tickets are on sale for the 2026 Boswell Book Festival, the world’s only festival of biography & memoir. The festival is a programme of stories taken from the lives of people past & present.

https://www.boswellbookfestival.co.uk

#Scottish #literature #bookfestival #biography #memoir

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225d

Larks they were in lift-off, swallows in soaring.
Soaring metal is flight and nest together…

—Edwin Morgan, “A Home in Space”
published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS, @carcanet.bsky.social 2020

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Artemis #space #NASA

A Home in Space
Edwin Morgan

Laid-back in orbit, they found their minds.
They found their minds were very clean and clear.
Clear crystals in swarms outside were their fireflies and larks.
Larks they were in lift-off, swallows in soaring.
Soaring metal is flight and nest together.
Together they must hatch.
Hatches let the welders out.
Out went the whitesuit riggers with frames as light as air.
Air was millions under lock and key.
Key-ins had computers wild on Saturday nights.
Nights, days, months, years they lived in space.
Space shone black in their eyes.
Eyes, hands, food-tubes, screens, lenses, keys were one.
One night – or day – or month – or year – they all –
all gathered at the panel and agreed –
agreed to cut communication with –
with the earth base – and it must be said they were –
were cool and clear as they dismantled the station and –
and gave their capsule such power that –
that they launched themselves outwards –
outwards in an impeccable trajectory, that band –
that band of tranquil defiers, not to plant any –
any home with roots but to keep a –
a voyaging generation voyaging, and as far –
as far as there would ever be a home in space –
space that needs time and time that needs life.

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226d

Ayont the linn; ayont the linn,
Whaur gowdan wags the gorse,
A gowk gaed cryin’: “Come ye in:
I’ve fairins in my purse…”

—William Soutar, “The Gowk”
published in Collected Published Poetry (Tippermuir, 2024)

April Fool’s Day is Huntigowk Day in Scotland

https://tippermuirbooks.co.uk/product/william-soutar-collected-works-vols-1-2/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #April1st

The Gowk
William Soutar

Ayont the linn; ayont the linn,
Whaur gowdan wags the gorse,
A gowk gaed cryin’: “Come ye in:
I’ve fairins in my purse.

My bield is o’ the diamond stane
Wi’ emerant atween:
My bonnie een are yours alane,
An’ rubies are my een.”

My faither brak a sauchy stick;
My mither wal’d a stane:
An’ weel l set it for the trick
Tae mak the gowk my ain.

The stane was set; the shot was shot;
The flichterin’ burd was fund:
But nocht aboot that lanely spot
O’ gowd or diamond.

It had nae siller for a croun;
Nae rubies for its een:
But a the crammasy ran doun
Whaur aince its breist had been.

I look’t; an’ there was nane tae see
The fairin I had taen:
I hung it on a roden-tree
An’ left it a’ alane.

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226d

Charles Dickens Searched the Streets of London and Found Inspiration for His Evocative Fiction

A three-part BBC series will examine how real events shaped the 19th-century British author’s writing. The show is part of the National Year of Reading in the U.K.

by Ryley Graham

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/charles-dickens-searched-the-streets-of-london-and-found-inspiration-for-his-evocative-fiction-180988451/

Dickens at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/37

#books #literature

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228d

It is big sky and its changes,
the sea all round and the waters within.
It is the way sea and sky
work off each other constantly,
like people meeting in Alfred Street,
each face coming away with a hint
of the other’s face pressed in it…

—Andrew Greig, “Orkney/This Life”
published in INTO YOU (Bloodaxe, 2001)

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/orkney-life/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Orkney

Orkney / This Life
Andrew Greig

For Catherine and Jamie

It is big sky and its changes,
the sea all round and the waters within.
It is the way sea and sky
work off each other constantly,
like people meeting in Alfred Street,
each face coming away with a hint
of the other’s face pressed in it.
It is the way a week-long gale
ends and folk emerge to hear
a single bird cry way high up.

It is the way you lean to me
and the way I lean to you, as if
we are each other’s prevailing;
how we connect along our shores,
the way we are tidal islands
joined for hours then inaccessible,
I’ll go for that, and smile when I
pick sand off myself in the shower.
The way I am an inland loch to you
when a clatter of white whoops and rises . . .

It is the way Scotland looks to the South,
the way we enter friends’ houses
to leave what we came with, or flick
the kettle’s switch and wait.
This is where I want to live,
close to where the heart gives out,
ruined, perfected, an empty arch against the sky
where birds fly through instead of prayers
while in Hoy Sound the ferry’s engines thrum
this life this life this life.

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226d

Did Geoffrey Chaucer invent April Fool’s Day?

Today, and every year on April the first, we curse Geoffrey Chaucer. Why? Because he is (supposedly) personally responsible for the two worst holidays (“holidays”) known to humankind/the internet. These, of course, are Valentine’s Day and today, April Fools’ Day.

https://lithub.com/tag/chaucer/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01KMVKDFT18P2CKKD0MVH2TF5N&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Chaucer at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/144

#books #literature

Portrait of Chaucer by William Blake.

Manchester City Gallery - Tempera on canvas c. 1800.

The bust-length portrait of Chaucer emerges from a wreath of laurel rendered in soft blue-greens against a pale aqueous background. The face is gentle and bearded, wearing a hood, and has a mild, benign expression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer#/media/File:William_Blake_-_Geoffrey_Chaucer_-_Manchester_City_Gallery_-_Tempera_on_canvas_c_1800.jpg

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227d

Reformation of science

Protestantism didn’t hold back science – it revolutionised its methods, its theoretical content and its social significance

by Peter Harrison

https://aeon.co/essays/how-protestantism-influenced-the-making-of-modern-science?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=72289caf52-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_03_06_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Protestantism at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4381

#books #literature #science

The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man (c1615) by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens. Early supporters of the Royal Society, founded in 1660, commonly spoke in theological terms about the new science recapturing a lost, pre-Fall human dominion over nature.

At centre-left, Eve reaches up to take the forbidden fruit from the coiled serpent in the Tree of Knowledge while Adam receives it from her hand.

Identifiable creatures include macaws and a blue-and-gold macaw in the branches, peacock, ostrich, turkey, heron, ducks, swans, rabbit, white lapdog, deer, lion, tiger, leopard, horse, elephant glimpsed in the distance, monkey, and many more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Eden_with_the_Fall_of_Man#/media/File:Jan_Brueghel_de_Oude_en_Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Het_aards_paradijs_met_de_zondeval_van_Adam_en_Eva.jpg

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228d

Why Is the Aeneid Important? Key Lessons and Impact of the Ancient Epic

"Virgil’s Aeneid is one of the most famous and influential pieces of literature from the Roman world. What was its purpose, and what are the key lessons it conveys?"

https://www.thecollector.com/aeneid-importance-founding-rome/

The Aeneid at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Aeneid

Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia

#books #literature

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225d

Silence: a brief literary history

by Kate McLoughlin

Without silences, we wouldn’t have the exquisite hush of medieval lullabies, the suspenseful secrets of the realist novel, or jagged modernist poetry.

https://theconversation.com/silence-a-brief-literary-history-277903?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%201%202026%20-%203724038096&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%201%202026%20-%203724038096+CID_11bc9538c61be32abbf7da8bc43f3be9&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk

#books #literature

When Children Are Asleep by Thomas Faed (1885).

A young mother or nursemaid sits by a fireside absorbed in reading a book. She wears a white cap, yellow neckerchief, grey bodice and green skirt. Through the half-open door behind her, a child lies sleeping in a box bed, cheek resting on folded hands.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Faed_(1825-1900)_-_When_Children_Are_Asleep_-_WAG_2816_-_Walker_Art_Gallery.jpg

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227d

CFP
A Kingdom in Perplexity: Voices of Seventeenth-Century Scotland Symposium
11 June, University of Glasgow

Postgraduate & Early Career Researchers specialising in any aspect of early modern Scottish history, literature & culture are invited to participate in the University of Glasgow’s new interdisciplinary research symposium. Contact scot17thcenturyresearch@gmail.com for details.

#Scottish #literature #history #culture #celticstudies #callforpapers #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

A map of Scotland from a 17th-century pocket atlas of Great Britain, drawn by John Speed and engraved by Peter Van Den Keere (Petrus Kaerius): 1627. Drawn in black on paper browned with age, labelled THE KINGDOME OF SCOTLAND

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199d

Happy 100th birthday to Harper Lee! Let's celebrate it.

April 28, 1926 saw the birth of Harper Lee, best known as the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, Lee achieved literary notoriety with a single book, then proceeded to publish sparingly. Her additional works, though few, have been the subject of considerable attention and worthwhile debate.

Check it out in our last newsletter:
https://www.gutenberg.org/newsletter/

#books #literature

Truman Capote's photo portrait of Harper Lee from the back cover of the first-edition dust jacket for Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

She gazes downward, wearing a light shirt, photographed outdoors through grass and a mesh screen, creating a layered, atmospheric effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_Lee#/media/File:Photo_portrait_of_Harper_Lee_(To_Kill_a_Mockingbird_dust_jacket,_1960).jpg

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224d

Thirty previously unpublished verses by Empedocles discovered on a papyrus from Cairo

by University de Liege

edited by Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Robert Egan

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-previously-unpublished-verses-empedocles-papyrus.html

Empedocles at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Empedocles

#books #literature #old_manuscripts

The Strasbourg Empedocles papyrus contained over 50 lines from Empedocles' work On Nature that were not published until 1999.

Multiple torn, irregular fragments of ancient papyrus, dark brown with age, bearing neat columns of Greek uncial script in black ink.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empedocles#/media/File:Empedokles_fragment_Physika_I_262%E2%80%93300.jpg

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224d

The cold Roman eye, hand on seal.
Vale. Take the thief away.

“You carry your own tree, Jimmy…”
Another gallowsbird behind.
One ahead, burdened, a bruised brightness…

—George Mackay Brown, “Stations of the Cross: The Good Thief”
published in CARVE THE RUNES: Selected Poems (Birlinn, 2021)

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/carve-the-runes/

#Scottish #literature #Easter #GoodFriday #poem #poetry #Orkney

Stations of the Cross: The Good Thief
George Mackay Brown

The cold Roman eye, hand on seal.
Vale. Take the thief away.

‘You carry your own tree, Jimmy . . .’
Another gallowsbird behind.
One ahead, burdened, a bruised brightness.

I’ve carried millstones, wine-vats, a mast.
That one was a carpenter.
His knees buckle under the heavy baulk.

My mother, poor woman, is dead.
His mother is here. Poor woman. Poor woman.

Look, Simon’s come into town
With an ox to sell.
They’ve laid another yoke on Simon.

Veronica, seamstress. No napkin ever
Soaked up such blood and sweat.

I stagger but I don’t fall.
The sneak-thief plods like a mule.
The bright one, he’s down again.

Those women! Miriam, Judith, Esther
Go home, sing over your cradles.
Sing among looms and pots.

Below, cornfields and vineyards.
A third time, fallen.
He tastes golden dust.

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The soldiers won’t bother, I think,
Haggling over my coat.
No scarecrow would wear a rag like that.

Silence – curses – from cross and cross.
From the mid-ark
A dove wings out into the blackest storm.

Thrust of lance into heart-root.
The soldiers are coming with mallets
To break the legs of the thieves.

The eyes of the mother
Drown all the world in pity and love.
The hammer beats on my knee.

That the hands of such a woman
Fold me gravewards.
Bear me and all men in her folds of light.

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224d

Three o’clock. The bus lurches
round into the sun. “D’s this go –”
he flops beside me – “right along Bath Street?
– Oh tha’s, tha’s all right, see I’ve
got to get some Easter eggs for the kiddies…

—Edwin Morgan, “Good Friday”
from CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS, @carcanet.bsky.social 2020

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #Easter #poem #poetry #GoodFriday #Glasgow