Books by Biggar Writers
Biggar Writers Group: Colour
This collection of poetry and prose on 'Colour' displays the broad and varied spectrum of creative responses from the group and other writers in the surrounding area invited to take part.
At the heart of the book is the work of entrants to our schools competition. This is fitting as the volume owes its existence to our desire to encourage young writers. The competition brought in over 200 entries from in and around the town. The prize winning entries published here are just a taste of the talent but what a joy to see just how much writing ability was uncovered - a real pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
This collection of poetry and prose on 'Colour' displays the broad and varied spectrum of creative responses from the group and other writers in the surrounding area invited to take part.
At the heart of the book is the work of entrants to our schools competition. This is fitting as the volume owes its existence to our desire to encourage young writers. The competition brought in over 200 entries from in and around the town. The prize winning entries published here are just a taste of the talent but what a joy to see just how much writing ability was uncovered - a real pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Biggar Writers: From Under a Bushel
From Carl MacDougall's Foreword to the anthology
From Under a Bushel is a selection of prose and poetry by 16 writers who are or have been members of Biggar Writers’ Group. No one is quite sure when or how Biggar Writers’ Group started. None of the original members are now active in the group and their early history was never recorded.
What is known is that they first met in Hugh MacDiarmid’s former home at Brownsbank Cottage, initially in the shed an admirer built as MacDiarmid’s work space cum scriptorium and on winter nights round the fire in the cottage itself. Then, as numbers grew, they moved to their present home in Biggar Municipal Hall.
And though individual members were and still are widely published, for some reason Biggar Writers never did what many groups see as an early duty - produced an anthology. This is their first publishing venture and the time lapse has supplied a title and a substantial body of varied and confident work. Individual voices have weight, substance and sufficient range to tackle more than immediate, straightforward subjects. These writers may share a location and some of the voices are local, but their concerns are anything but parochial.
This anthology offers a window into the lives of others. It shows their hopes and apprehensions and an ability to distinguish between insight and personal experience. Surprising leaps of imagination and thought come with a willingness to tackle difficult themes realistically, often with a refreshing sense of humour. And none of the work can be termed fashionable, nor does it follow current literary trends. For that reason, if no other, anyone who cares about the future of one of our oldest media must welcome its arrival.
What is known is that they first met in Hugh MacDiarmid’s former home at Brownsbank Cottage, initially in the shed an admirer built as MacDiarmid’s work space cum scriptorium and on winter nights round the fire in the cottage itself. Then, as numbers grew, they moved to their present home in Biggar Municipal Hall.
And though individual members were and still are widely published, for some reason Biggar Writers never did what many groups see as an early duty - produced an anthology. This is their first publishing venture and the time lapse has supplied a title and a substantial body of varied and confident work. Individual voices have weight, substance and sufficient range to tackle more than immediate, straightforward subjects. These writers may share a location and some of the voices are local, but their concerns are anything but parochial.
This anthology offers a window into the lives of others. It shows their hopes and apprehensions and an ability to distinguish between insight and personal experience. Surprising leaps of imagination and thought come with a willingness to tackle difficult themes realistically, often with a refreshing sense of humour. And none of the work can be termed fashionable, nor does it follow current literary trends. For that reason, if no other, anyone who cares about the future of one of our oldest media must welcome its arrival.
James Christie - Dear Miss Landau
Every morning James Christie puts on a blue rugby shirt and jeans. His wardrobe is full of identical outfits. Every day he eats the same meal and drinks from the same mug. These are not ingrained habits, but survival strategies. For James, coping with new experiences feels like smashing his head through a plate glass window. The only relief comes from belting the heavy bag at the boxing club or watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He's an autistic man lost in a neuro-typical world. Differently wired. Alien. Despite a high IQ, it seems he'll spend the next 20 years cleaning toilets. But then his life takes an amazing turn - from a Glasgow tenement to a rendezvous with a Hollywood star on Sunset Boulevard.
On that road trip across America, the man who feels he lacks a soul will find it. Eight time zones and 5,000 miles away, he has a date with the actress who played Drusilla, the kooky vampire who changed his life when he saw her in a Buffy episode. Drusilla has no soul either. And maybe that's the attraction. But Drusilla is fictional. The lady he'll see on Sunset is Juliet Landau. She's real, and that's a very different proposition...
Every morning James Christie puts on a blue rugby shirt and jeans. His wardrobe is full of identical outfits. Every day he eats the same meal and drinks from the same mug. These are not ingrained habits, but survival strategies. For James, coping with new experiences feels like smashing his head through a plate glass window. The only relief comes from belting the heavy bag at the boxing club or watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He's an autistic man lost in a neuro-typical world. Differently wired. Alien. Despite a high IQ, it seems he'll spend the next 20 years cleaning toilets. But then his life takes an amazing turn - from a Glasgow tenement to a rendezvous with a Hollywood star on Sunset Boulevard.
On that road trip across America, the man who feels he lacks a soul will find it. Eight time zones and 5,000 miles away, he has a date with the actress who played Drusilla, the kooky vampire who changed his life when he saw her in a Buffy episode. Drusilla has no soul either. And maybe that's the attraction. But Drusilla is fictional. The lady he'll see on Sunset is Juliet Landau. She's real, and that's a very different proposition...
James Christie - The Legend of John Macnab
John Sandiman is a librarian at a run-down Glasgow college full of feckless students and overseen by hopeless jobsworths. Fed up with his job, still mourning the cowardly way that Jessica, his ex-girlfriend, dumped him and bemoaning the apathy of the Scots, Sandiman dreams of the time when Caledonia was led by kings. So when Natalie, his colleague and drinking buddy, mentions something called The Book of Deer, he takes no notice. After all, there’s little a librarian can do to change the world. Or is there? What Sandiman did not anticipate was that a fictional character from Scotland’s past would come vibrantly to life, hurling him into a quest to face his own past and change his country’s future. Spanning two millennia from the sea kingdom of Dalriada to the Scottish referendum of 1997, The Legend of John Macnab takes readers behind events they thought they knew and brings them face-to-face with a forgotten icon more splendid than the Stone of Destiny.
John Sandiman is a librarian at a run-down Glasgow college full of feckless students and overseen by hopeless jobsworths. Fed up with his job, still mourning the cowardly way that Jessica, his ex-girlfriend, dumped him and bemoaning the apathy of the Scots, Sandiman dreams of the time when Caledonia was led by kings. So when Natalie, his colleague and drinking buddy, mentions something called The Book of Deer, he takes no notice. After all, there’s little a librarian can do to change the world. Or is there? What Sandiman did not anticipate was that a fictional character from Scotland’s past would come vibrantly to life, hurling him into a quest to face his own past and change his country’s future. Spanning two millennia from the sea kingdom of Dalriada to the Scottish referendum of 1997, The Legend of John Macnab takes readers behind events they thought they knew and brings them face-to-face with a forgotten icon more splendid than the Stone of Destiny.