20 Sunday Mail November 29, 2020 email [email protected] web www.sundaymail.co.uk Sunday Mail November 29, 2020 21 RELATIVES REMEMBERED IT’S BEEN A BLOCKBUSTERR OFO A YEAR FOR SCOTLAND’S WRITERS IN CROSS-BORDER SWAP Bereaved son Jason Bassett ■ Andy Shipley trip this year to the ashes makes an annual 500-mile memorial plot at Robin Hood round trip to lay a holly resting place offered to help. Cemetery, near Shirley, with wreath on his dad’s She faces a similar problem wife Lisa, also 30, would have memorial every Christmas. as she lives in the Midlands been extra special as its But when pandemic travel but her mum is buried at their first Christmas with Moffat in the Borders, One for thet record books restrictions made this year’s 10-month-old son Arlo. 30 minutes away from Jason’s DAMIAN’S pilgrimage to Solihull, near Funeral director Jason ■ Birmingham, impossible, Dumfries home. said: “Perhaps this incredible Anna Burnside BOOKS OF 2020 he went on Facebook to look So, the pair have agreed story is the true meaning of Scotland’s authors have had CRIME: PINE for help. to visit the plots of their Christmas. It has made me Francine Toon Jason’s post reached respective parents this think there may be lots of their best year ever, scooping This Highland Gothic mystery has 100,000 people and a woman festive season. families in a similar some of the top prizes across been a runaway success story. It who lives just five minutes John died in 2013, aged 65, situation. Perhaps we can the world. has got to be developed for telly away from his dad John’s from lung cancer, and Jason’s reach out to one another.” MEMORIAL Jason From novels to crime thrillers, our most at some point. talented authors are sweeping the board. Damian Barr, presenter of the BBC’s DEBUT: THE YOUNG TEAM The Big Scottish Book Club, is now calling Graeme Armstrong on the Government to capitalise on this The story of Azzy, a ned trying to incredible pool of cultural talent. turn his life around, has echoes of The author, who wrote critically The Great Gatsby via Airdrie. acclaimed memoir Maggie And Me about SCABBY QUEEN growing up in Scotland during the FICTION: Kirstin Innes Thatcher years, said: “Douglas Stuart’s You only glimpse Clio Campbell Shuggie Bain has won the Booker Prize through other people but she – he’s only the second Scot to do so. feels real in this clever, quite “And Maggie O’Farrell won the Muriel Spark-like novel. Women’s Prize for Fiction with Hamnet. We’ve done the double. CONTENDER Mina is up for NON-FICTION: ISLAND DREAMS “Now Denise Mina has been shortlisted SCOTS PRIDE Booker winner Costa. Right, Damian’s book Gavin Francis for the Costa Book Award for The Less This journey through islands, full Dead. We may be about to do the triple. of questions about isolation and It’s a really proud moment and the perfect connection, is an unintentionally time to invest in Scottish voices and very timely book. stories and to expand the idea of what a Scottish voice or story is.” MEMOIR: STORIES Damian is delighted the First Minister WE TELL is a bookworm but would like to see OURSELVES the Government Richard Holloway doing more. The former Bishop of Edinburgh’s tiny He would like book about the big to see tax breaks questions and his for bookshops, personal struggle support for to find meaning. writers at the start of their careers, and authors in DAMIAN’S PICKS FOR 2021 schools. “ N i c o l a LUCKENBOOTH BIG HEART Dolly Sturgeon sets Jenni Fagin gives books to kids a brilliant Five generations example”, he in a cursed said. “She’s very knowledgeable and Edinburgh very well read. tenement. “But no government should preside TRANSCENDENT over the shrinking of the education SHARED PASSION But Damian more time to read. They are spending shops and festivals. Damian said: “There KINGDOM system or the closure of libraries. wants Sturgeon to do more more time online, hearing about other are new shops opening all the time. I just Yaa Gyasi Government should do what Dolly Parton TV host Damian people reading and recommending heard about one in Blairgowrie. There’s Follow-up to her does in the US and send a book to every books to each other. a specialist LGBT bookshop, Category amazing debut, kid. We shouldn’t have to rely on heroic “As well as The Big Scottish Book Club, Is Books, in Glasgow. Homegoing. individuals. I pay taxes for a reason.” there is BBC2’s Between The Covers and “It’s not an accident that our show Growing up in Newarthill, near wants success SOME BODY Sky Arts Book Club. That’s three shows happened in Scotland and not London; TO LOVE Motherwell, Damian thought that all – books are back on telly. there is such a thriving reading and Alexandra writers were dead. He said: “As a child, I “After every episode, I get people on writing scene in Scotland. had never met a living writer. to kickstart a Heminsley Twitter straight away telling me they “Now we need to get better at Intimate memoir “Some of the first books I owned were have bought the book. Libraries are celebrating our cultural heroes. We gave given to me by social services. If a kid exploring a owns a book, they are much more likely new era of displaying The Big Scottish Book Club the world Muriel Spark, Robert Burns, rainbow family. books for people who can’t afford to buy. Walter Scott, some of the greatest to read and buy books in the EMPIRELAND future.” “Authors just want to be read, whether writers in the world. We need to make Damian, whose first novel their books are borrowed or bought.” the shelf for Scottish writers bigger.” Sathnam reading Sanghera You Will Be Safe Here came It helps that Scotland has a strong The Big Scottish Book Club is on BBC infrastructure, with publishers, book Scotland, Sunday, 10pm A history of the out in paperback in April, British empire in said the pandemic the age of BLM. has created a golden opportunity to build THE OCTOPUS a nation of readers MAN and writers. Jasper Gibson He supports the A law student Scottish Book Trust’s hears the voice of scheme to give a book an octopus god to every child for in his head. Christmas. He said: “People h a v e