Snowy Sunday Summary

Well, I'm sure everyone's completely fed up of snow pictures by now, but this is the first time I've really been able to get out in it and I get as excited as a five year old, so to accompany this post are some pictures of a snowy Glasgow, including one which is recognisably Glasgow - a park bench with a bottle of the aptly named Frosty Jack cider, a fag packet, a 'carry-oot' bag, an Irn Bru bottle and, touchingly, a couple of flower bouquets.

All the snow has reminded me how much I miss the children and teachers in the small villages of the Kuspuk School District in Alaska. So I have decided to go back in May - if they'll have me. At that time, the snow will be melting, the river will be unfreezing and the runways (ie small strips of potholed gravel) will be flooding. Last time I got to fly a plane and drive a snowmobile, on my first trip I drove an ATV to a glacier, this time maybe I'll get to row a boat. And now, on to the links:

The FT reviews Catriona McPherson's DANDY GILVER AND THE PROPER TREATMENT OF BLOODSTAINS, Sons of Spade with a small, but perfectly formed, review of Russel McLean's THE LOST SISTER, the wonderfully named Thoughts From An Evil Overlord reviews Ian Rankin's DOORS OPEN, and the Washington Times reviews Alexander McCall Smith's THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF SCONES.

Ian Rankin vows to hunt downEdinburgh wheelie bin arsonists. And, for those of you on Twitter who don't already follow Ian Rankin (@Beathhigh), you should do - this was his Tweet when the police came to see him about the fires "Filth at door this afternoon; flushed the drugs ‘n’ buried the gun in compost heap, then remembered: they were here re wheelie-bin fires." Brilliant.

My Writing Life with an excellent summary of Iain Banks at an Edinburgh City Reads event.

The Wall Street Journal with an interesting article about Conan Doyle and the burden of Sherlock Holmes.

Alexander McCall Smith at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair in March. And you can hear McCall Smith talking about 44 Scotland Street.

You can also hear a McLevy story from David Ashton here, although only for the next 17 hours. Whoops. And, talking of David Ashton, here's a New Year story in The Scotsman.