- Trio set off on charity bike ride
- Photos 'of Bismarck sinking' emerge
- Warning issued about dangerous gas
- Neighbour rescues woman from fire
- Man held over £85,000 drugs find
- Fund for 'climate justice' launched
- Scorching day for marathon runners
- Anti-independence campaign 'soon'
- Saltire Games ban 'ridiculous'
- Park waterfall death man named
Main features
Truckers have a special affection for Stracathro services – perhaps it should become a world heritage site
I DROVE through the darkness and I drove through the dawn, mist lying thick on golden fields of oilseed rape, and I came at last to Stracathro Services, off the A90 just north of Brechin.
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New research reveals high levels of stress hormones in babies left to cry themselves to sleep leaving new parents with a dilemna
AS IF the sleep-deprived husks of humanity otherwise known as new parents didn’t have enough to worry about, new research has emerged to plunge them further into a baby-brain stupor about how to get their screaming bundles of joy off to sleep.
He’s in mourning for Donna Summer and Robin Gibb, but Nile Rodgers survives against all the odds
IBIZA is hosting its annual gathering of the great and the good of dance music and Nile Rodgers is due to give the keynote address – yet more evidence of his status as the king of disco. But at three o’clock on his beachfront hotel balcony on a sizzling hot afternoon he only has thoughts for disco’s queen.
Revealing past convictions may bring justice for some victims of crime, but how many innocent people will it condemn?
RETIRED Chief Inspector Les Gray still recalls the frustration of seeing “career” criminals being presented as lily-white by defence lawyers who are all too aware of their client’s past history.
DVD review: The Artist
What is it? Surely this one can’t have passed you by? This is the modern-day silent movie that hoovered up awards this year, and made stars of both its leading man, Jean Dujardin – playing a silent movie star whose career flounders as talkies take over – and his dog.
Game review: Max Payne
This grim and gritty noir sees Max Payne now working as private security for a rich family in Brazil. Burnt out, Max dulls the pain with pills.
Claire Black: “She looked confused. I probably did too – maybe she had a pet rabbit?”
STANDING in the supermarket queue the other day, I concentrated on lining up my groceries by order of size and density – with attention paid to the order in which they would be packed into my bag (What? Isn’t that what everyone does?).
Fordyce Maxwell: Liz wondered up to the last minute why a 12-year-old was getting married
AS A festivity-closer, Loch Lomond was new to me. It involved a lot of jumping up and down and several in-and-out rushes similar to Auld Lang Syne melees while the band belted out “You tak the high road…” at a tempo Kenneth McKellar would not have recognised. Along with, I seem to remember amid the mayhem, an occasional burst of the Proclaimers’ “I would walk 500 miles”.
Book review: The Old Ways: A Journey
THIS volume completes a rough trilogy – Mountains Of The Mind, The Wild Places and now The Old Ways – and confirms Robert Macfarlane’s reputation as one of the most eloquent and observant of contemporary writers about nature; although a new term is increasingly necessary.
Andrew Eaton-Lewis: Antony Hegarty wants to change the world, and it’s life-affirming to see
HERE’S a challenge. Whatever kinds of cultural events you enjoy going to – comedy shows, concerts, exhibitions, plays, films etc – try, between now and August, only to go to ones that are not part of a festival.
Film review: Angel’s Share
MUCH like whisky, Ken Loach movies are an acquired taste; a product of elemental ingredients that can create fieriness and some unexpected, earthy flavours. Few vintage filmmakers have Loach’s cask-strength earnest political commitment, and as such he’s something of a prized local product.
Book review: Sidney Chambers And The Shadow Of Death
‘AND is there honey still for tea?” When the hero is a learned young country vicar, and one of two love interests is named Hildegard, after the 12th century Christian mystic Hildegard of Bingen, you know you’re in pretty refined company for a detective series. Opera-loving Inspector Morse would appear to have a rival.
Alice Francis plans to wrap an entire Dumfries and Galloway cottage in a rose-pattern cover
AS AN artist who left behind two cities – London where she grew up and Edinburgh where she studied – to live the rural life in Dumfries and Galloway, Alice Francis might not have expected to end up working on a northern factory floor.
Album review: Scissor Sisters
Has Jake Shears recovered his mojo after misplacing it so carelessly before Night Work, an album on which he seemed to forget what the day job was? In parts, yes he has, but Magic Hour still strays off message occasionally.
Motoring review: Electric Vauxhall Ampera a gas
You may run out of power, but you won’t run out of steam with the Ampera, although finding the cash to buy it could prove a problem, writes Frederic Manby
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My first car ... Ashley Smith, actor
MY FIRST car was a Fiat Panda. My parents bought it second hand for me before I passed my test, which would have been about eight years ago; I got it as a Christmas present.
TV review: 56 Up | Tales of Television Centre | Silk
PHEW, that’s a relief. Always with the 7 Up series there’s anxiety over how we’ll find the subjects, another seven years down the line.
The bountiful game: Ewan McGregor on the fragile existence of babies who owe their lives to Soccer Aid and Unicef in India
WRITING exclusively for Scotland on Sunday, Ewan McGregor recounts an emotional visit to a pioneering unit saving tiny lives in one of the poorest parts of India
1 commentFordyce Maxwell: On Apollo 13 they weren’t still having to use central heating in May
YOU can have too much information, and I’ve just switched off an example of that. Nothing to do with a DVD in questionable taste or a website called up by mistake. All to do with the good intentions of our gas and electricity supplier.
Alice Wyllie: Lauding Prince Philip for his crass comments is cap-doffing at its worst
YES, Prince Philip, you would be arrested if you unzipped that dress. Or at least you should be.
Does exile on CBBC prove Blue Peter has finally lost its appeal for the young?
THE air of gloom was palpable. As news filtered through that Blue Peter – that custodian of myriad childhood memories – was to be axed from BBC1, generations raised on silver bottle tops and totalisers took to Twitter to lament its passing.
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Notebook: Glasgow’s shelf life
IN A southern state of America lives a young girl. Named Ruchazie: as in Ruchazie Jones or Ruchazie Martinez – Ruchazie as in her Christian name. This Ruchazie (perhaps her friends just call her Ruch) must be around ten by now and reaching that age when kids start to get inquisitive. So how, she may soon be coming to wonder, when all her friends sport names like Christy-Lou and Shannice, did she come to be called Ruchazie?
Book review: Ramshackle, by Elizabeth Reeder
LITERARY chins have, for a while now, wagged about Chicago-born Elizabeth Reeder, a teacher on the much-admired University of Glasgow Creative Writing Programme, and now based in Scotland.
Book review: The Deadman’s Pedal, by Alan Warner
IT LOOKS, at the outset of his seventh novel, as if Alan Warner is going to follow Donna Tartt, Alan Hollinghurst, Naomi Alderman and countless others down that well-trodden path back to Brideshead: callow, curious boy is transformed by exposure to exhilaratingly depraved toffs.
Book review: Why Spencer Perceval Had To Die, by Andro Linklater
SPENCER Perceval, although he is hardly a household name, occupies a unique and unfortunate position in British history: he is the only Prime Minister to have been assassinated. If that piece of trivia is pub-quiz obscure, then the name of his murderer (John Bellingham) is certainly worth more than a bonus point.
Book review: Dark Dawn, by Matt McGuire
THERE’S no messing with Matt McGuire and the blunt, hard-nosed opener to his debut crime novel: “It was January. It was raining. The kid was dead.”
Interview: Will Ferrell, actor and comedian
Proud of his new Mexican spoof in Spanish, funnyman Will Ferrell tells Siobhan Synnot why learning the language was such a serious business
DVD of the week: The Descendants
What is it? In Alexander Payne’s Hawaii-set comedy drama, George Clooney is a workaholic who has to face up to some difficult truths about his family when an accident leaves his wife in a coma and him in charge.
Film reviews: What To Expect When You’re Expecting | Free Men | Iron Sky |
A FACT-filled, best-selling, self-help guide to pregnancy is the basis of this new domesticated comedy, a new level of desperation in page-to-screen that should at least grab the attention of Jean Marie Stine, author of How To Write A Bestselling Self-Help Book.
Game of the week: Starhawk
Set during a gold rush on a distant planet, Starhawk is sci-fi dressed in classic Western trappings.
Art review: Masterpieces From Mount Stuart: The Bute Collection, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh video
MONEY as well as taste is at the root of an impressive collection that bears witness to generations of connoisseurs
CD reviews: Paul Buchanan | John Mayer | Admiral Fallow | Folk | Jazz | Classical video
The voice of the Blue Nile emerges with his first solo album, a selection of short but certain songs which sound like the soundtrack to a melancholy black and white Sunday afternoon.
Andrew Eaton-Lewis: George Wyllie, you gave and continue to give inspiration to all of us
WHEN George Wyllie died last week, Scotland seemed suddenly drained of a little energy and colour. It reminded me of March 2006, when Ian Hamilton Finlay and Ivor Cutler died within weeks of each other. All these men were, in their different ways, mavericks – eccentric, subversive, not always appreciated for it, but irreplaceable once lost.
Interview: Julie Delpy, actress, screenwriter and director
SHE’S piled on the pressure by writing and starring in her own films, but Julie Delpy tells Siobhan Synnot it’s worth it to avoid sexy Latina and bimbo roles
Alice Wyllie: Brad Pitt probably smells like a sawmill, with notes of Oscar disappointment
THE olfactory world has been rocked by the news that a stinky man is to become the hairy face of the most famous fragrance on the planet. Chanel has announced that the new campaign for its signature scent, Chanel No 5, will be fronted by formerly-handsome hat wearer Brad Pitt.
Hair to the throne
CAN any of today’s stylists make as profound an impact on fashion as the late great Vidal Sassoon did in the 60s? Emma Cowing examines the contenders
Fordyce Maxwell: The car washer and inveterate grass cutter might think the same about me
MOST of us have chores to do to keep house and home ticking over. Some we don’t mind, some we dislike, a few we might rather enjoy.
Book review: Opposed Positions by Gwendoline Riley
THE references to literary greats may be flattering but Gwendoline Riley’s distinctive style puts her beyond compare, says Stuart Kelly
Book review: Curiosity by Philip Ball
WHAT do we mean by curiosity? What do we mean by the terms scientific thinking or scientific method? How have these things changed over the centuries, and what should we even be curious about? Is anything off limits?
Book review: Remembering Che by Aleida March
THE heroes of Cuba’s Rebel Army had their needs too. In this memoir, Aleida March, widow of Che Guevara, recounts her relationship with the revolutionary icons.
Book review: Reality, Reality by Jackie Kay
WHAT’S most pleasing in this story collection by one of Scotland’s most celebrated writers is the quality of exuberance.
Charge of the Light Brigade to dazzle at Edinburgh’s International Festival
ARTHUR’S Seat is the stage for an ambitious, illuminated walking and running spectacle as part of the Edinburgh Festival – and anyone can play a part, finds Gabe Stewart
The Falkirk Wheel: A decade of quiet revolution in Scottish tourism video
TEN years ago, on 24 May, 2002, Her Majesty the Queen officially opened the Falkirk Wheel as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations. A decade later, they both still appear to be in decent working order, performing fairly repetitive functions at a stately pace.
Andrew Eaton-Lewis: Good luck to Against Me!’s new female singer, Laura Jane Grace
‘PUNK star to change sex but will stay married,” went one typical headline on Thursday, as the American rock band Against Me! was suddenly introduced to a whole new audience.
Visual art review: A Parliament Of Lines, City Art Centre, Edinburgh
DAD is sitting in his study, idly tapping away at his Apple Mac when, somewhat snaggle-toothed and wild-eyed, young Robert asks him the question that all parents dread: “Daddy, where did I come from?”
Film review: The Dictator video
YOU loved him as Borat, you were OK with him as Ali G, and we don’t really talk about Bruno. Now after a three-year absence and equipped with a magnificent Edward Lear beard, Sacha Baron Cohen reunites with director Larry Charles with a new comic persona.
Film review: The Raid
IN THE exotic, blood-drenched, slice-em-up world of Indonesian martial arts mayhem, the villains of The Raid could have maybe avoided fighting a Police SWAT team in a tower block, floor by floor, by holing up in the basement rather than the penthouse – but then we might be denied snapped necks and smashed knees in our introduction to the fighting discipline of pencak silat.
Film reviews: Dark Shadows | The Source | Two Years at Sea | 2 Days in New York
Syiobhan Synnot reviews the rest of this week’s forthcoming cinema releases
Game review: The Walking Dead: A New Day
ZOMBIES are a perennial favourite in gaming, and now Telltale Games has linked up with Robert Kirkman’s excellent comic-turned-TV series The Walking Dead.
Album reviews: The Gossip | Tenacious D | Alan Reid and Rob van Sante | Jazz | Classical
REVIEWS of the rest of this week’s longplayer releases
- Family mourn death of Glasgow ‘fight’ schoolboy
- Rangers takeover: Duff & Phelps threaten legal action against BBC
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
- Rangers administration: Fans fear Duff & Phelps claims could scare off Green
- Rangers takeover: triple penalty punishment enough, says Johnston
- Alistair Darling leads ‘No to independence’ fight over tea and biscuits
- Scottish independence: SNP flip-flops over Nato
- Scottish independence: Alex Salmond’s pledge to sign up 1m voters
- Scottish Independence: SNP ‘won’t be Yes campaign’s only voice’
- Today’s youth not fit to be employed, says car firm Arnold Clark
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Weather for Edinburgh
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North east
