by tim_bell | Jun 21, 2020 | Latest News
Midsummer day. The solstice. We should mark it more than we do. It’s not just another day. A few years ago on this day I was visiting the coal ships in Leith, and got friendly with a Philippine crew. At 10 o’clock in the evening I was extolling with them...
by tim_bell | Jun 18, 2020 | Latest News
Give Welsh’s Trainspotting a bit of respect for having a broad view of Leith in the 1980s. Spud Murphy, explicitly of Catholic Irish descent, and his mixed-race uncle Dode, are going into the Persevere pub near the foot of Easter Road where the Orange Order and...
by tim_bell | Jun 15, 2020 | Latest News
Exactly three years ago, as MC of the Leith Community Tattoo, I called for the customary minute’s silence following the Last Post to include respect and a call to action for the dead, bereaved and affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower. Later I wrote in my book:...
by tim_bell | Jun 13, 2020 | Latest News
Picture the scene, all as it really happened. On a cold January evening this year, coming out of the City Chambers on Edinburgh High Street I was startled to hear a very loud voice and vivid lights. Turning round, I saw that they had just started the poem with...
by tim_bell | May 29, 2020 | Latest News
I’m drafting out an Author’s Note for the next re-print, or second edition of my book. Amid the C-19 crisis we are forgetting a whole community of people in our streets and right across the world who look set to become reservoirs of the C-19 as well as...
by tim_bell | May 23, 2020 | Latest News
Irvine Welsh, or someone on his behalf, is objecting to a Waitrose poster calling for fruit and veg pickers: PICK GETTING OUT OF THE HOUSE. PICK RAIN. PICK SHINE. PICK FRUIT AND VEG…. PICK PUTTING MONEY IN YOUR POCKET. PICK PUTTING FOOD ON YOUR PLATE… PICK BEING A KEY...
