It’s not been a great year for me. All work and not enough play made Karen a dull girl in 2023; Artemis’s avian romance ended in tragedy; and there was the major disappointment of not getting Eurovision tickets 😭 But it hasn’t been all bad. Let’s have a look at it.
Continue readingGingerbread creations
21 Dec
How is your Christmas prep coming along? Mine is going pretty well. All the presents are bought, wrapped and sent; the cards have been posted; and I have applied my Christmassy nail wraps (a very important step). I don’t have to worry about all that nonsense about buying enough food for an army because, as the black sheep of the family, I always spend the day itself at someone else’s house. But, for the last few years, I have contributed a gingerbread structure each year, so that’s what I was doing all of yesterday, and some of the day before.
Continue readingReturn to the Hellmouth
27 Nov
In other words, my top ten episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Or of Buffy, Slayer of Vampyres. (Yes, that episode will be making the list.)
Continue reading‘Rambling Round Victorian Glasgow’ talk
6 Nov
Just a quick one to say that I’m giving a talk to the Old Glasgow Club this Thursday, 9th November, at the Renfield Centre, 260 Bath Street, G2 4JP. The talk is called Rambling Round Victorian Glasgow with Hugh MacDonald (although he will not be making an appearance in person).
Continue readingMy top three reads
1 Nov
I’m planning to cover 2023’s reading in my usual “year in review” post, but this is slightly different. Book recommendation site Shepherd asked me for my top three reads of the last 12 months, October to September.
Continue readingPaisley’s Weaver Poets
27 Oct
Ok, perhaps a bit of a niche subject, but something I came across while working on Hugh MacDonald’s Rambles Round Glasgow (he knew a lot of poets, as well as being a poet himself), and thought I might as well get an article out of.
Continue readingDo one thing (or more) that scares you
30 SepMy recent book talks and book trails went very well, and thank you to everyone who has asked about them. It didn’t even rain on the book trails, which was nothing short of a miracle!
Continue readingBook talk at Bridgeton Library
12 AugKicking off my autumn (ok, late summer, but it doesn’t feel like it) season of book talks and walks, I’ll be appearing at Bridgeton Library on Thursday 24th August from 6pm to talk about Hugh MacDonald (who was born only a few minutes’ walk from the library) and the process of annotating the 21st Century edition of his classic Rambles Round Glasgow.
Continue readingArtemis and Parzival – a Love Story
31 JulThose of you who have been following for a while will know that I usually keep a pet bird – but just the one. That changed recently when I realised that my shy budgie Artemis was never going to be true friends with me, and needed a companion of her own species.
Continue readingWhat on earth are county lines?
15 JulNot to be confused with the line dance called “county line”, county lines is a form of trafficking where drug traffickers get kids to ferry their drugs around for them. Child labour is very much a viable business option if you’re someone who’s not too concerned about breaking the law like, you know, drug traffickers.
It’s more common than you would think, and it doesn’t just involved “troubled” kids (not that they are any less valuable or deserving of protection). Anyway, you can read all about it in my new article for Premier NexGen, Premier’s youthwork arm. You have to register to read the whole thing, but it’s free and you don’t have to sign up for updates if you don’t want to.
K C Murdarasi 