Rory Watson & Alan Bissett
We’re back in Glasgow’s magical Alasdair Gray Archive on this episode, for a chat with two brilliant Scottish writers, and literary leading lights - Rory Watson and Alan Bissett…
Rory is a poet, academic and editor - and a former Professor of English at Stirling University, whose celebrated work includes books exploring Hugh MacDiarmid, Norman MacCaig, Scottish Literature, and he was the long-time General Editor of Canongate Classics, where his paths crossed with Alasdair Gray, among myriad others.
His latest poetry collection, The Silver of Old Mirrors, is a stunning, glinting and gentle reflection on a life well lived, and a life well loved - and a well-thumbed family album that digs deep on landscape, tides, and time… He’s launching it in his home town of Stirling at the Central Library on April 8th…
I’ve known Rory and his wife Celia all my life - their daughter’s one of my best and oldest friends - and even when I lived in London, I’d always visit them when I was home. One of those times, around 2001, we were chatting about books, and music - and Rory handed me something from a Stirling Uni student that he said he thought I’d love…
He was bang on the money. It was Alan Bissett’s first novel, Boyracers - Alan thanks Rory for his support in the acknowledgements - and since that hurtling, exuberant thrill of a debut, Alan’s work as an award-winning writer and performer has revelled on the page, on the stage, and beyond…
There’s been Death of a Ladies’ Man, and the unstoppable Moira Monologues, there have been plays exploring Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett, witchcraft trials, and Andrea Dworkin; not to mention a short film, The Shutdown - and an excellent pop collaboration with Arab Strap’s Malcolm Middleton…
More recently, an imagined conversation between Billy Connolly and Alasdair Gray, inspired by a photo of them together at the launch of Lanark in 1981, has given rise to Alan’s acclaimed and hugely entertaining one-man show, When Billy Met Alasdair, which returns to the stage this Saturday night, March 28th… That’s at the Citz as part of Glasgow Comedy Festival.
And so, to celebrate all of that, I sat down with Alan and Rory and we chatted about the wonder of words, the magic of old photographs, the power of listening to women’s voices - from mums and wives and matriarchs to theatre directors and avant-pop diviner Laurie Anderson - and we looked forward to their next events.
We got a bit nostalgic, too… After all, mirrors are always looking back…
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