“ALAN Parks is an amiable bear of a man who these days spends his time wandering around Glasgow thinking up ways to murder people. No, don’t worry. His criminal activities are purely fictional. Parks is that not-so-rare thing these days, a Scottish crime writer. His first novel Bloody January is out now”
Teddy Jamieson
The Herald
“When I started writing Bloody January I wanted to write about Glasgow and I wanted to write a book about the different kind of people who lived there in the early seventies. A crime story seemed to be the best way to explore the different levels of society, from homeless people living on the streets to the landed Gentry in their huge houses in the country … So I ended up writing a ‘Tartan Noir’. Definition seems to be pretty broad but mostly they are novels set in Scotland containing some element of crime in the plot. Here are five of my favourites”
Alan Parks
Dead Good
“Daniel H Pink’s engaging book reveals the best times of day to make optimum decisions … It is intriguing stuff written with a light, assured touch by Pink, an expert on motivation and management who is at pains to stress that modern science shows that scheduling and careful timing of our daily routines is crucial to our wellbeing”
Robin McKie
The Guardian
“All the words that follow are my yearning to make some sense out of the American darkness that disconnects colored fathers from sons, a darkness in which sons and fathers lose track of one another.”
“You might think you know about Father Christmas. And I'm sure you do know some things. You probably know about the Toy Workshop and the reindeer. But the thing you probably don't know about is me...”
“When the waves faded out on the far side of the stream, Kenn felt the great silence that lay upon the world and stood in the midst of it trembling like a hunted hare.”
“When Apollo was born, Brian and Lillian thought they'd reached the end of their story but they'd been wrong. The wildness had only begun.”
A Boy Called Christmas teaching resource
You can get free A Boy Called Christmas (as well as A Mouse Called Miika) teaching resources for children age 7+! These festive activities have been created to prompt discussions around the true spirit of Christmas in Matt Haig’s text, looking at the true story of Father Christmas – and encouraging students to develop their reading comprehension, inference, creative writing and film-making skills!
You can get these free Christmas-themed teaching resources for children aged 7–9! Make an amazing Christmas display for your classroom, or learn about Queen Victoria and more.
You can get these free Christmas-themed teaching resources for children aged 7–9! Make an amazing Christmas display for your classroom, or learn about Queen Victoria and more.
