Additional Information

Readings from the three writers, prose from Alex Hamilton and James Kelman and poetry from Tom Leonard. Starts with introduction from Hamilton standing in front of a mostly unseen audience with the location unclear. He talks about writing in a Glasgow cadence and sets the scene for his 1st reading, which regards a fight between two young boys. He then talks a little about transcribing Glaswegian dialect (for example, writing ‘jum paff’ instead of ‘jump off’) and then reads his 2nd story about some children who can’t cross a dual carriageway. About 24 minutes in Tom Leonard takes over and reads some of his poems, talking about reconciling narrative with phonetic poetry. He considers how the Glaswegian dialect might be deemed unsuitable as a language of intellect and the way that people change registers as they speak. About 43 minutes in James Kelman takes the floor and reads 3 anecdotal short stories which tell tales involving working on a farm in Wales and trying to get by on benefits. The camera is fairly static throughout, focusing on the performers. The tape ends part-way through Kelman’s final story.