We sold out at Worldcon! But don’t worry, you’ve got another chance to see us. Waterstones Thursday 29th August. #Gallus #BookLaunch #ScottishSFF #AuthorTalk
And secondly, if you're in the Glasgow area - we're having another launch! Get your book signed when we swamp the Waterstones Argyle ST bookstore on 29th August.
Waterstones Book Launch Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gsfwc-cele...
Who knows? You might even get another go at Brian's tablet. (2/2)
Waterstones Book Launch Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gsfwc-cele...
Who knows? You might even get another go at Brian's tablet. (2/2)
August 18, 2024 at 1:26 PM
We sold out at Worldcon! But don’t worry, you’ve got another chance to see us. Waterstones Thursday 29th August. #Gallus #BookLaunch #ScottishSFF #AuthorTalk
One of my blog posts is in the list of sources for this. There has been a huge uptick in interest in Mannin in recent years. Of #ScottishSFF interest, she was the model for the heroine of Three Go Back (1932) by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell).
#OtD 5 Dec 1984 popular British author Ethel Mannin died aged 84. Many of her works covered radical and revolutionary themes stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1050...
December 5, 2025 at 8:38 PM
One of my blog posts is in the list of sources for this. There has been a huge uptick in interest in Mannin in recent years. Of #ScottishSFF interest, she was the model for the heroine of Three Go Back (1932) by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell).
Definitely contemplating this. Anyone interested in doing a panel on Scottish SFF. I'm thinking modern modern or contemporary but always open to ideas. #fantasy #sciencefiction #ScottishSFF
If you’re working on any area of fantasy and the fantastic, come and join us at Glasgow in June 2026 and do consider presenting or running a workshop! All the info you need and the full CFP is here:
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...
@uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social
fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/index.php/20...
@uofgfantasy.bsky.social @uofgartshums.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Definitely contemplating this. Anyone interested in doing a panel on Scottish SFF. I'm thinking modern modern or contemporary but always open to ideas. #fantasy #sciencefiction #ScottishSFF
Just pre-ordered. Another essential helping of #ScottishSFF!
Just a reminder. SF Caledonia Anthology One is published on Thursday, so still available at pre-order prices.
www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/sf-c...
www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/sf-c...
March 11, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Just pre-ordered. Another essential helping of #ScottishSFF!
So, that was a blast. Who knew Glasgow was a massive sun trap!? Absolutely brilliant inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic. Enjoyed every moment, including the Scottish Speculative Fiction panel I was on. Thanks to organisers and speakers. Next year, Karlstad! #ScottishSFF #Europe
Fantasy's Present Pasts kicks off tomorrow - look forward to seeing delegates in the morning! (We have some dangerously bright conference bags...)
www.gla.ac.uk/schools/crit...
www.gla.ac.uk/schools/crit...
University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Critical Studies - Research - Research Centres and Networks - Fantasy - Fantasy's Present Pasts
www.gla.ac.uk
June 26, 2026 at 11:01 AM
So, that was a blast. Who knew Glasgow was a massive sun trap!? Absolutely brilliant inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic. Enjoyed every moment, including the Scottish Speculative Fiction panel I was on. Thanks to organisers and speakers. Next year, Karlstad! #ScottishSFF #Europe
No.34 in this thread. Naomi Mitchison, Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962). 'Drawn into this seductive alien world of radical difference, with its promise of release from the tired old binaries of human existence, Mary merges into an all-encompassing relationship with the radiates...' #ScottishSFF (47/-)
Road from Glasgow 2024 to PictCon 1:Naomi Mitchison, Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962)
#WomenWritersSFF #ScottishSFF (Index) This is a revised extract from a chapter in an academic collection of essays: ‘Naomi Mitchison: Fantasy and Intermodern Utopia’ in Alice Reeve-Tucker and…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
May 31, 2025 at 3:09 PM
No.34 in this thread. Naomi Mitchison, Memoirs of a Spacewoman (1962). 'Drawn into this seductive alien world of radical difference, with its promise of release from the tired old binaries of human existence, Mary merges into an all-encompassing relationship with the radiates...' #ScottishSFF (47/-)
The Essential Robert Duncan Milne, edited by Keith Williams & Ari Brin. 19th century #ScottishSFF writer who was based in California. Great to see Uni of Dundee working on this.
I was well chuffed to be asked to write a foreword to this superbly produced and edited edition of the work of a forgotten pioneer of sf (and he really was: I've of course read the stories and they tick all Gernsback's boxes!)
learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk/dundeeunicul...
learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk/dundeeunicul...
Historic Science Fiction Edition from Research at the University of Dundee – University Culture Online
learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk
January 24, 2025 at 10:04 AM
The Essential Robert Duncan Milne, edited by Keith Williams & Ari Brin. 19th century #ScottishSFF writer who was based in California. Great to see Uni of Dundee working on this.
Nearly time to head north for PictCon 1. I'm also still on my journey through #ScottishSFF. Margaret Elphinstone's The Incomer (1987) is a very rich and rewarding account of a post-collapse rural matrilineal society, founded on principles of nonviolence but nonetheless still subject to change.
No. 61. [Sorry for the intermission - the aim is to get back to regularity in November and December]. Margaret Elphinstone, The Incomer (1987). Published in the distinctive grey-bordered editions of The Women's Press SF imprint, a traveller overwinters in a village in post-collapse future. (79/-)
Road from Glasgow 2024 to PictCon 1: Margaret Elphinstone, The Incomer (1987)
Part of my series of posts on Scottish SFF, which began in the run-up to the Glasgow WorldCon and are now continuing on to PictCon 1 in November 2025. This also ties in with my – recently becalmed,…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
October 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Nearly time to head north for PictCon 1. I'm also still on my journey through #ScottishSFF. Margaret Elphinstone's The Incomer (1987) is a very rich and rewarding account of a post-collapse rural matrilineal society, founded on principles of nonviolence but nonetheless still subject to change.
I wrote about Margot Bennett for SF Caledonia. Better known as a crime writer, she wrote two SF novels: The Long Way Back (1954) and The Furious Masters (1968), both of which I discuss here. I also write about her service with the British Medical Unit in the Spanish Civil War. #ScottishSFF
Margot Bennett by Nick Hubble – SF Caledonia
www.sfcaledonia.scot
September 19, 2025 at 5:16 PM
I wrote about Margot Bennett for SF Caledonia. Better known as a crime writer, she wrote two SF novels: The Long Way Back (1954) and The Furious Masters (1968), both of which I discuss here. I also write about her service with the British Medical Unit in the Spanish Civil War. #ScottishSFF
My #ScottishSFF blogpost series continues with a post on two novellas by Naomi Mitchison: When the Bough Breaks (1924) and Travel Light (1952). Travel Light (1952) is one of Mitchison’s better-known works. It’s a fun feminist fairytale reworking of the Oedipus myth w/ talking bears and dragons (1/).
Road from Glasgow 2024 to PictCon 1: Naomi Mitchison, When the Bough Breaks(1924) and Travel Light (1952) as SFF Texts
Part of my series of posts on Scottish SFF, which began in the run-up to the Glasgow WorldCon and is now continuing on to PictCon 1 in November 2025. This is also part of my series of posts conside…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
March 2, 2025 at 5:02 PM
My #ScottishSFF blogpost series continues with a post on two novellas by Naomi Mitchison: When the Bough Breaks (1924) and Travel Light (1952). Travel Light (1952) is one of Mitchison’s better-known works. It’s a fun feminist fairytale reworking of the Oedipus myth w/ talking bears and dragons (1/).
Another great round-uo from Lisa Tuttle. I'm particularly pleased to see the new edition of Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light included here. #ScottishSFF
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup
The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan; The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan; Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison; Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman; Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
www.theguardian.com
March 13, 2026 at 11:34 PM
Another great round-uo from Lisa Tuttle. I'm particularly pleased to see the new edition of Naomi Mitchison's Travel Light included here. #ScottishSFF
Moving on to the fourth book on this year's shortlist for the BSFA Award for Best Novel, here is my review of Lorraine Wilson's The Salt Oracle. Beautifully written and psychologically complex near-future thriller (with added dark academia) and the Finnish coastline. I loved it. #BSFA #ScottishSFF
BSFA Best Novel of 2025 Shortlist: Lorraine Wilson, The Salt Oracle
I have committed myself to reviewing this year’s BSFA Best Novel shortlist according to specific criteria as set out in my recent post, SFF as History as Social Science. Specifically, ‘I’m going to…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
March 31, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Moving on to the fourth book on this year's shortlist for the BSFA Award for Best Novel, here is my review of Lorraine Wilson's The Salt Oracle. Beautifully written and psychologically complex near-future thriller (with added dark academia) and the Finnish coastline. I loved it. #BSFA #ScottishSFF
Here is a slightly expanded version of the paper I gave at the @bacls.bsky.social conference last week at the University of Stirling: '"the Situation is Nominal": Ken MacLeod's Critique of the Scottish Programme'. #ScottishSFF #AcademicSky
‘The Situation is Nominal’: Ken MacLeod’s Critique of the Scottish Programme
This is a slightly expanded version of the paper I gave on the last day of the British Association of Contemporary Literary Studies (BACLS) What Happens Now? Conference at the University of Stirlin…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
June 15, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Here is a slightly expanded version of the paper I gave at the @bacls.bsky.social conference last week at the University of Stirling: '"the Situation is Nominal": Ken MacLeod's Critique of the Scottish Programme'. #ScottishSFF #AcademicSky
Getting the #ScottishSFF project back on track with this review of Ken MacLeod's A Jura for Julia (2024), which first appeared in ParSec. I'm keeping going with this throughout 2025, so there should be time to finish working through Ken's back catalogue and cover some other writers too.
Road from Glasgow 2024 to PictCon 1: A Jura for Julia by Ken MacLeod (NewCon Press, 2024)
Part of my series of posts on Scottish SFF, initially coinciding with the 2024 Glasgow WorldCon and focusing especially on the work of GOH Ken MacLeod, and now continuing in 2025. This is a slightl…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
January 26, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Getting the #ScottishSFF project back on track with this review of Ken MacLeod's A Jura for Julia (2024), which first appeared in ParSec. I'm keeping going with this throughout 2025, so there should be time to finish working through Ken's back catalogue and cover some other writers too.
Here's one I wrote earlier. My review for @strangehorizons.bsky.social of Poems (2015) by Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod. The proletarian answer to the modernist question lives on. Great poetry too. #ScottishSFF. #RoadToGlasgow2024 #Worldcon #Glasgow2024 #KenMacLeod #IainBanks
Poems by Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod
What the well-merited publication of the Poems shows is how an apparently doomed constellation of politics and aesthetics from the 1970s was able to become the seed of two bodies of work that have …
strangehorizons.com
July 27, 2024 at 10:24 AM
Here's one I wrote earlier. My review for @strangehorizons.bsky.social of Poems (2015) by Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod. The proletarian answer to the modernist question lives on. Great poetry too. #ScottishSFF. #RoadToGlasgow2024 #Worldcon #Glasgow2024 #KenMacLeod #IainBanks
So, this is me up to date with #ScottishSFF, right? As I said in Two Centuries of Scottish SF Writers earlier today, this is the latest instalment of that history (including Luna & Shoreline!) #ForOurFutures #Glasgow2024. Brilliant cover art for l & centre by Jenni Coutts & r: Siobhan Mcdonald.
August 10, 2024 at 5:58 PM
So, this is me up to date with #ScottishSFF, right? As I said in Two Centuries of Scottish SF Writers earlier today, this is the latest instalment of that history (including Luna & Shoreline!) #ForOurFutures #Glasgow2024. Brilliant cover art for l & centre by Jenni Coutts & r: Siobhan Mcdonald.
Popped into the NLW @librarywales.bsky.social for a bit of research into Margot Bennett #ScottishSFF
March 13, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Popped into the NLW @librarywales.bsky.social for a bit of research into Margot Bennett #ScottishSFF
I'd love to be in Edinburgh for the celebration of Nova Scotia 2 tonight but it's a bit far to come for the evening, so I hope it goes really well for all involved! (I was at the Worldcon launch). Here is an extended version of my review which appeared in the latest issue of ParSec. #ScottishSFF
December 4, 2024 at 1:29 PM
I'd love to be in Edinburgh for the celebration of Nova Scotia 2 tonight but it's a bit far to come for the evening, so I hope it goes really well for all involved! (I was at the Worldcon launch). Here is an extended version of my review which appeared in the latest issue of ParSec. #ScottishSFF
No.43 in this bi-weekly thread. Naomi Mitchison's Beyond This Limit - a collaboration with Wyndham Lewis, who did the illustrations. That this even exists seems so unlikely. Also, I love Lewis's portrait of Mitchison, which isn't in the book but I've included it here anyway. #ScottishSFF (57/-)
Road from Glasgow 2024 to PictCon 1: Naomi Mitchison and Wyndham Lewis, Beyond This Limit (1935)
#WomenWritersSFF #ScottishSFF (Index) As with the post on Mitchison’s Memoirs of a Spacewoman, this is a revised extract from a chapter in an academic collection of essays: ‘Naomi Mitchison: …
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
July 2, 2025 at 10:49 AM
No.43 in this bi-weekly thread. Naomi Mitchison's Beyond This Limit - a collaboration with Wyndham Lewis, who did the illustrations. That this even exists seems so unlikely. Also, I love Lewis's portrait of Mitchison, which isn't in the book but I've included it here anyway. #ScottishSFF (57/-)
No.21. A personal favourite from recent years, Lorraine Wilson's The Way the Light Bends (2022). I love the way this novel breaks up linear time to reach the land of Scotland. It's a different kind of politics. An interesting writer to think through career building today. #ScottishSFF (33/-)
Road from Glasgow 2024 to Pictcon 1: Lorraine Wilson’s The Way the Light Bends (2022)
This review originally appeared in Parsec #5 (Autumn 2022). Lorraine Wilson’s psychologically tense debut novel, This is Our Undoing (2021), marked her out as a writer to watch out for; a status th…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
May 11, 2025 at 1:59 PM
No.21. A personal favourite from recent years, Lorraine Wilson's The Way the Light Bends (2022). I love the way this novel breaks up linear time to reach the land of Scotland. It's a different kind of politics. An interesting writer to think through career building today. #ScottishSFF (33/-)
Latest in my ongoing series of blogposts on the work of Ken Macleod and #ScottishSFF more broadly. This is a long discussion of the Engines of Light trilogy, which I've come to see as perhaps his key work in terms of bringing all the themes together. Also some notes on the Scottish Programme.
Road from Glasgow 2024: Ken Macleod, Engines of Light: Cosmonaut Keep (Orbit, 2000), Dark Light (Orbit, 2001) and Engine City (Orbit, 2002)
Including Notes on the Dialectic, Historical Materialism and the Scottish Programme Part of my series of posts on Scottish SFF in the run-up to, and aftermath of, this year’s WorldCon, focusing esp…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
October 31, 2024 at 1:26 PM
Latest in my ongoing series of blogposts on the work of Ken Macleod and #ScottishSFF more broadly. This is a long discussion of the Engines of Light trilogy, which I've come to see as perhaps his key work in terms of bringing all the themes together. Also some notes on the Scottish Programme.
On to The Execution Channel (2007) in my read through of Ken MacLeod in the run-up to the Worldcon in Glasgow. #Glasgow2024 #RoadToGlasgow2024 #sciencefiction #sf #ScottishSFF #KenMacLeod
Road to Glasgow 2024: The Execution Channel by Ken Macleod (Orbit, 2007)
Part of my series of posts on Scottish SFF in the run-up to this year’s WorldCon, focusing especially on the work of GOH Ken MacLeod. (NB. I am discussing the plot and ending of the novel in detail he...
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
May 19, 2024 at 10:49 PM
On to The Execution Channel (2007) in my read through of Ken MacLeod in the run-up to the Worldcon in Glasgow. #Glasgow2024 #RoadToGlasgow2024 #sciencefiction #sf #ScottishSFF #KenMacLeod
At #Glasgow2024, I will be on the following panels -
Iain Banks: Between Genre and the Mainstream (Fri 11.30), Reviewing Across the Internet (Fri 19.00), Made in Scotland: Two Centuries of Scottish Science Fiction Writers (Sat 13.00), 75th Anniversary of 1984 (Mon 11.30). #ScottishSFF #ForOurFutures
Iain Banks: Between Genre and the Mainstream (Fri 11.30), Reviewing Across the Internet (Fri 19.00), Made in Scotland: Two Centuries of Scottish Science Fiction Writers (Sat 13.00), 75th Anniversary of 1984 (Mon 11.30). #ScottishSFF #ForOurFutures
July 31, 2024 at 3:36 PM
At #Glasgow2024, I will be on the following panels -
Iain Banks: Between Genre and the Mainstream (Fri 11.30), Reviewing Across the Internet (Fri 19.00), Made in Scotland: Two Centuries of Scottish Science Fiction Writers (Sat 13.00), 75th Anniversary of 1984 (Mon 11.30). #ScottishSFF #ForOurFutures
Iain Banks: Between Genre and the Mainstream (Fri 11.30), Reviewing Across the Internet (Fri 19.00), Made in Scotland: Two Centuries of Scottish Science Fiction Writers (Sat 13.00), 75th Anniversary of 1984 (Mon 11.30). #ScottishSFF #ForOurFutures
Some brief thoughts on the BSFA Awards longlists and 2024 as the year of #ScottishSFF, Gold SF and Newcon's Polestars. Also: what I've voted for to be shortlisted.
BSFA Awards Longlists 2025 and My Selections
The publication of the longlist of nominations for the BSFA awards is now part of the annual calendar of UK SFF. Reading through it is a pleasurable way of reminding us of the highlights of last ye…
prospectiveculture.wordpress.com
February 23, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Some brief thoughts on the BSFA Awards longlists and 2024 as the year of #ScottishSFF, Gold SF and Newcon's Polestars. Also: what I've voted for to be shortlisted.
Came across this today on Skye: Sgiath, Amazon Queen of Skye by George W. MacPherson (Luath Press, 2019 - although already reprinted in 2020, 2022, 2023 & 2024. Unvarnished story: a fairly uncompromising bit of original #ScottishSFF. Maybe, I could tutor in one of Sgiath's colleges or universities.
August 15, 2024 at 9:22 PM
Came across this today on Skye: Sgiath, Amazon Queen of Skye by George W. MacPherson (Luath Press, 2019 - although already reprinted in 2020, 2022, 2023 & 2024. Unvarnished story: a fairly uncompromising bit of original #ScottishSFF. Maybe, I could tutor in one of Sgiath's colleges or universities.