I was insanely privileged to be invited to speak at Google Firestarters 16, as one of the Magnificent Seven CSO’s and Planning Directors curated by Neil Perkin. We each had ten minutes to talk about “The most useful thing you have learned in your career to date”, and to do …
If Chuck Palahniuk did poetry readings they might be like this. Fifty eight people out of ninety in the queue are allowed into the Demonstration Room at Edinburgh’s Summerhall venue. We have been standing with our craft beers in a small car park surrounded by shabby Seventies offices. We look …
I have posted a second Salmon and Bear short story. It is called The Exhibitionists and it involves a near-death experience for poor Salmon, who was just trying to live a little. “I’m going to create a diversion,” said the boy, “Something that is temporarily more interesting to a bunch …
Advertising research has got much harder of late. So says a researcher friend of mine. As if it weren’t bad enough to have to schlep out to the suburbs three nights a week, and subsist on breakfast cereal for dinner, those pesky people just don’t want to talk about ads …
instead of giving me customer service you gave me a stern talking to and let me off with a caution Ever had that feeling when someone you’ve known and liked for years inadvertently gives you a glimpse of their hitherto well-hidden or well-suppressed nasty side, and it irrevocably changes …
The fence is not an option in the Scottish Independence Referendum. To exercise your democratic right to vote is to get off your bum and jump down on one side or the other. Yes or No, black or white, the stark choice of the ballot box makes no allowance for …
The worst that could happen if Scotland votes Yes in the Independence Referendum is far worse than the status quo, and that’s why I’ll be voting No. ********** It’s not about the trains. It’s about the track. Independence is a licence to rip the track up and …
I used the Authors’ Toilet at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Once upon a time this would have been an act of mischief, a low level dare. On this occasion I was not just allowed but encouraged to do so by a nice person with a walkie talkie. Nonetheless it …
A needle to the waist punctures the girl’s bravado. “Holy shit,” she gasps as the gun rattles to life, and I’m glad I opted for the upper arm rather than the lower abdomen. Trevor said it would be more comfortable for a first-timer like me and the look …
My daughter Penny’s French teacher is French. She speaks English with an accent that is (eez) pleasing on the ear. Penny and her friends (and her French teacher) are not long back from a school exchange in Versailles. They stayed en famille and a week of speaking French improved Penny’s …
