Bawbags, Gobbledygook and a Better Class of Thief

Ian Pattison's Rab C Nesbitt gets plenty of ink. And for those in Glasgow, or thinking of visiting, you can catch an Ian Pattison play in May at Oran Mor's 'A Play, A Pie, and a Pint' series. But make sure you don't mix up your local hostelries and end up at the Bucket of Blood in Possilpark for their 'A Buckie, A Bawbag, and a Boak' series.

For those with plenty of time on their hands, the Scottish Parliament debates literacy. Or you can watch it on TV here, if you have a spare two and a half hours, and there's a summary underneath if you don't.

Here's the start of the Lit Sutra blog on Ian Rankin's appearance in India. And an interview with Edinburgh Spotlight here.

Best Selling Books reviews Charles Cumming's TYPHOON, Margaret Cannon has nice things to say about Russel McLean's THE GOOD SON, Starting Fresh blog likes M C Beaton's DEATH OF A VALENTINE and Dutch site 8 Weekly says...errrr...Dutch things about Philip Kerr. I have absolutely no idea whether they liked it or not, especially since plugging the first paragraph into Babelfish results in the following translation:
"The genre is literary think thriller no longer and knows a large schare volgers. The question what moves an editor when he a thriller stamp ' literair' gives, it has been already frequently put. Generally it is determined that in vain zoeken is to the so-called literary aspect. If the deads do not rise again on this no exception forms. " Sadly, there is no option to turn gobbeldygook into English.

An event called Murder, Mystery and Microscopes has made the shortlist for Best Live Communication event in the Communicators in Business awards.

And, finally, about 200 of Edinburgh's most distinguished citizens are suspects in an art theft. "A picture hook was left at the scene of the crime." Presumably vol-au-vent crumbs too.