ALAN BISSETT

 

FRIDAY 15th JUNE

 

We have arranged for

ALAN BISSETT

to visit Islay High School to talk to the

older pupils about his books and his writing.

 

 

SATURDAY 16th JUNE at 2.00

 

ALAN BISSETT

 will talk about his novels

BOYRACERS,

and THE INCREDIBLE ADAM SPARK

He will also provide a preview of his next novel,

DEATH OF A LADIES' MAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:

Alan says of himself,

“I was born in Falkirk in 1975. Falkirk is a small town in Scotland almost exactly halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. If you go between Glasgow and Edinburgh on the train, you will always stop at Falkirk halfway there. And if you look out of the window (to the left if you’re coming from Glasgow, just after the tunnel through which you leave Falkirk High Station) you’ll see Hallglen, which is the housing scheme where I grew up and where my family still live. You’ll know it cos all of the buildings are white. Or at least they used to be. Now they’re a kind of dull grey colour.

I went to Hallglen Primary School, which I loved, and Falkirk High School, which I

didn’t enjoy very much, mainly cos I was one of those depressed teenagers that we keep reading about these days. Then I went to Stirling University and got a First in English and

Education, which surprised everyone, not least me. After a spell teaching English in secondary schools, I got tired of not being a student and went back to study for a PhD.

I didn’t get a PhD. But I did get two books published. Boyracers and Damage Land.

I then lectured in Creative Writing at the Bretton Hall campus of the University of Leeds for about three years, where I wrote my second novel, The Incredible Adam Spark. Now I teach on the MPhil in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, which has produced almost every new writer in Scotland and their aunty. Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for any of them, as they had all graduated before I arrived.

I live in Glasgow, but I visit Falkirk and Leeds a lot. I write stuff. I have a brother, a sister, a mum and a dad. I have two wee nephews. They are ace. And that’s it really. Most writers have deeply boring lives. Unless you’re George Orwell, and get shot fighting in a war or sleep on the streets for research and stuff. And I don’t fancy that much, sorry.

I also like cherry-coke and peach schnapps”.

 

What the critics say about Alan’s books.

 

"Launched with the adrenalin rush of a bull entering the ring, Boyracers fires off a

technicolour display of Falkirk special effects, racing us through the main drag and

suburbs, the pubs and clubs, even the high school precincts… Bissett’s style is infectious. There is real emotion here, and gutsiness. There’s also a feeling for language so passionate it shames the dullness of so many sentences that make it into print."

Rosemary Goring, Sunday Herald

"One of the best things I’ve read in ages."

Ali Smith

 

“Adam Spark is a virtuoso literary creation… Bissett is taking his animated and emotionally raw prose to another level. Sparky is a wonderfully unique character who manages to evoke both great sympathy and, at times, revulsion. This is a fresh and exciting read." 

Scotland on Sunday

“There's nothing quite like Alan Bissett's fizzy, upbeat fiction in the republic of Scottish letters. He totally inhabits the mind of his main characters, and he does so with wit and panache and a huge sugar-rush of energy.”

The Scotsman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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