#BusConductor
December 18, 2024 at 9:43 PM
January 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
I've been re-reading a lot of Kelman lately. This isn't quite his best - I prefer The Busconductor Hines and A Disaffection, and many of his masterful short stories - but it's still excellent. The Booker/ lit establishment handwringing about all that 'bad language' was so depressing and revealing...
December 13, 2025 at 10:14 AM
@andotherstories.bsky.social are a properly decent, fine and determined publisher. They are bringing back into print A Chancer, The Busconductor Hines and Kieron Smith, boy.
Here are some words from James Kelman:
February 8, 2026 at 9:16 PM
Crash (1973)

Life: a User's Manual (1978)

Lanark (1981)

The Busconductor Hines (1984)

White Noise (1985)
May 16, 2026 at 7:10 PM
James Kelman, The Busconductor Hines. A revolutionary novel.
What's the most striking work of literature you've ever read? Nonfiction or fiction, on a prose level or on the level of structural excellence or character or everything. What is it?
January 19, 2025 at 6:56 PM
#booksky 1. book you've reread the most times?
Embarrassingly, probably Lord of the Rings, when I was younger

2 top 5 books of all time?
Beckett -Trilogy
Kafka -The Castle
James Kelman -The Busconductor Hines
Gunter Grass -The Flounder
Philip Larkin -The Whitsun Weddings
1. Book I have reread the most times: A christmas Carol - once a year every year since I was 11.
2. Top 5 books of all time:
Great granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood
Love and garbage by Ivan Klima
Pfitz by Andrew Crumey
The Book of evidence by John Banville
The poetry of Norman MacCaig
August 4, 2026 at 6:38 PM
10 favourite novels. No repeat authors. (My top 5 are unchanging.)

The Electric Michelangelo
Austerlitz
Wuthering Heights
The Busconductor Hines
Cloud Atlas
When I Hit You
All My Puny Sorrows
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Fingersmith
The Essex Serpent
10 Favourite novels with no repeat authors!
Today's choices.

The Age of Innocence
Pride and Prejudice
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Cassandra at the Wedding
The Easter Parade
The Great Gatsby
A Month in the Country
The Slaves of Solitude
Quartet in Autumn
In a Lonely Place
10 fave novels. No repeat authors.
Today:

Heartburn
The 27th Kingdom
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Emma
A Fairly Honourable Defeat
American Pastoral
The Cazalet Chronicles
Finn Family Moomintroll
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
November 8, 2023 at 10:42 AM
I applied to Glasgow because of James Kelman and The Busconductor Hines. Didn’t get the grades so ended up in Stirling. (And then transferred to Birmingham.)
October 12, 2023 at 7:59 PM
"The Busconductor Hines" by James Kelman.

...story of my life, man. Story of my life. No other book feels as real to me, no character as familiar and loathsome as Hines.

Alternatively, "The F*ck-It List" by John Niven. INSPIRATIONAL LITERATURE!
Ok, everyone, what book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?
Strange takes on Mayor Zamdani swearing his oath on the Qu’ran. It has nothing to do with church & state. The point of the oath is for the person swearing in to do so upon some text that is sacred TO THEM. Some Presidents swore in w/o any book. John Quincy Adams was sworn on a law book. His choice.
January 2, 2026 at 6:05 AM
With Cormac McCarthy being, eh, tainted..."The Busconductor Hines" might be my favourite book.

It's a miserable read: nothing Hines wants will happen. He won't grow or change. This is clear from the start, and only gets clearer, but it's riveting anyway, for all nothing happens.
June 26, 2025 at 5:32 AM
update! this is my third Kelman & best so far imo
June 16, 2025 at 6:03 PM
O aw thae quairs A addit the noo, ainlie Busconductor Hines wis votit for by a Scottish bodie. Aw the ither votes cam fae non-Scots.
May 13, 2026 at 12:24 PM
British working class novelists and novels:
Lewis Grassic Gibbon A Scots Quair (trilogy, 1932-4); Barry Hines, A Kestrel for a Knave (1968); William McIlvanney, Docherty (1975); Pat Barker, Union Street (1982); James Kelman, The Busconductor Hines (1984); Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting (1993)
March 15, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Justified Sinner haes yin vote, sae cannae be in the tap 100.

Ithers definately NO in it, acause we can see thiv been votit for awready:

How To Be Both (x3 votes)
39 Steps
Busconductor Hines
Maribou Stork Nightmares
Girls Of Slender Means
Valley Of Fear
Far Cry From Kensington
Memento Mori
...
May 13, 2026 at 12:14 PM
March #reading:
#GustaveFlaubert Sentimental Education and Three Tales
#LemnSissay My Name is Why
#JamesKelman The Busconductor Hines 1984
#ChinuaAchebe Anthills of the Savannah 1987
#HenryGreen Loving 1945
#AndreyPlatonov Happy Moscow, 1930s, tr. 2001 Robert and Elisabeth Chandler. Astonishing.
April 1, 2024 at 5:03 PM
You curse the puddle as you are trying to step out of it. But what if you can't? What if, for some reason, you are stuck? The discomfort will increase and your own inability to do something about it further adds to your misery.

Maybe Hines will step up to become a bus driver one day. Maybe.
November 23, 2024 at 3:37 PM
Conductor-aa irundha dhaan theriyum! 😂🚌

Ticket, change, passenger questions & arguments… ஒரு நாள் full-ah conductor POV! 🎟️🤣

video link in description 👇👇
youtu.be/tzgyj-q2OPM

#TamilComedy #BusConductor #ConductorPOV #SBCtv
September 13, 2026 at 10:00 AM
December 10, 2025 at 10:12 AM
#BOTD
💙📚 📚🖋 #TBR My writer of the day.
June 9, 2025 at 3:04 PM
The Busconductor Hines by James Kelman.
November 18, 2024 at 3:51 PM