Susan Alison MacLeod, a Glasgow School of Art graduate with a dark sense of humour, first lays eyes on Douglas MacDougal at a party in 1988, and resolves to put him on the cross in the Crucifixion painting she’s been sketching out, but her desire to create ‘good’ art and a powerful, beautiful portrayal means that a final painting doesn’t see the light of day for fourteen years.
Over the same years, Douglas’s ever-more elaborately designed urine-based installations bring him increasing fame, prizes and commissions, while his modelling for Susan Alison, who continues to work pain and suffering on to the canvas, takes place mostly in the shadows. Iain Hood’s This Good Book is a wickedly funny, brilliantly observed novel that spins the moral compass and plays with notions of creating art.
Lily Crawford and Jeanie Taylor, from very different backgrounds, are firm friends from their childhoods in Kirkcudbright. The two women's eventful lives are intertwined. In the years before the First World War, the girls lose touch when Jeanie runs away from home and joins a dance company, while Lily attends The Mack, Glasgow's famous school of art designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Inspired by the eventful and colourful lives of the pioneering women artists The Glasgow Girls, particularly that of Eleanor Allen Moore, Maggie Ritchie’s Daisy Chain is a story of independence, women's art, resilience and female friendship, set against the turbulent background of the early years of the 20th century.
Philip Miller’s The Goldenacre is named after a masterpiece by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The beautiful canvas, the last work by the artistic genius, enthrals the art world, but behind it lies a dark and violent mystery. Thomas Tallis, an art expert with a trouble past, is trying to uncover the truth about the painting's complex history, while dogged newspaper reporter Shona Sandison is investigating a series of shocking murders in Edinburgh. Both investigators soon become engulfed in the machinations of money, crime and identity in a literary thriller set amid the seen and unseen forces at work in modern Scotland.
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Want to be the first to hear about what's happening in Glasgow? Just hit 'Like' on our Facebook page, join the What's On Scotland Facebook Group and 'Follow' on our Twitter account and you're all set!Unearthed: The Power of Gardening, a free display at The Mitchell Library, explores the transformative, enriching and sometimes radical power of gardening.
READ MOREGlasgow Mitchell Library Classics Book Group runs on the first Thursday of each month with the library kindly providing books for all members, so there is no cost involved!
READ MOREAn afternoon of stories, crafts, and imagination awaits at The Mitchell Library at this Story Garden Kids Craft Session on Tuesday 15th July!
READ MOREAs Part of the Summer Reading Challenge 2025, Story Garden, join Glasgow Libraries for a storytelling workshop for children and families led by prizewinning author Janis MacKay!
READ MOREAward-winning crime author Liam McIlvanney in conversation with Scottish literature expert Dr Valentina Bold in a unique discussion of Scottish Gothic inspired by Liam's new psychological thriller.
READ MOREThe team at The Mitchell Library are hosting a fun day on Saturday 2nd August celebrating their exhibition Unearthed: The Power of Gardening!
READ MOREGlasgow's Book Fair, Books at the Botanics, is held every month in the Hopkirk building at Glasgow's Botanic Gardens!
READ MOREGlasgow Mitchell Library Classics Book Group runs on the first Thursday of each month with the library kindly providing books for all members, so there is no cost involved!
READ MOREAs part of the 20th Birthday Hamish McHaggis book tour, author Linda Strachan will be at Riverside Museum on Sunday 13th July holding readings and signing books!
READ MOREAs Part of the Summer Reading Challenge 2025, Story Garden, join Glasgow Libraries for a storytelling workshop for children and families led by prizewinning author Janis MacKay!
READ MOREBGCP Comic Con returns to Loch Lomond Shores on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July for a family-friendly weekend suitable for heroes of all ages!
READ MOREJoin STREETrave to celebrate Irvine Welsh's sequel to his iconic bestseller Trainspotting, with the man himself himself behind the decks for a special DJ set, joined by Steve Mac and Carl Loben!
READ MOREAward-winning crime author Liam McIlvanney in conversation with Scottish literature expert Dr Valentina Bold in a unique discussion of Scottish Gothic inspired by Liam's new psychological thriller.
READ MORESequential Scotland is a brand new comic convention coming to Glasgow in August which will spotlight the amazing comic creators and micro-publishers from across Scotland and the UK!
READ MOREThis short course from the University of Glasgow offers you the chance to explore some of Glasgow's impressive libraries and their part in local civic history.
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