Football, Flashers and Flying Across the Clyde

Craig Robertson and others talk baddies to Bookdagger.

Edinburgh's Tales of One City has a Youtube channel. See Iain Banks, Doug Johnstone, Irvine Welsh and much more (thanks to @scottishbooks) .

Ian Rankin - celebrity whale watcher. And he is great to follow on Twitter "Apparently, my brand new Inspector Rebus short story, 'The Very Last Drop', will be published in Friday's 'Scotsman' newspaper", he says. Yippee! He also says: "wondering if the couple who won me on ebay left positive feedback..."

A great article in The Guardian on John Buchan's Richard Hannay books.

The lovely Karen over at Eurocrime comments on several books with a football focus, including books by Scots Bill Knox, Alex Gray and Alexander McCall Smith.

More from The Scotsman on Creative Scotland and the potential pitfalls which need to be avoided.

A reminder of a rather excellent sounding event with Ray Banks on Friday if you are in London.

Booksquawk reviews THE DARKNESS by Bill Kirton. The South African Times Live reviews Ian Rankin and Philip Kerr. And the delightful Bernadette in Oz enjoyed Caro Ramsay's SINGING TO THE DEAD, but has a double pronged rant about authors who do not update their websites and how all Scottish authors end up being called "the next Ian Rankin", even when they patently aren't. Well said, that woman.

The Chicago Tribune on why mysteries still matter.

Carol Anne Davies on a recent Home Office report which recommends that police stop talking about crime because it upsets people. Her story of being flashed at reminds me of when a friend and I were once flashed at in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

And, finally, there's only a week or so to go, so I'm getting as many plugs in as possible for my death defying plunge across the River Clyde on a piece of string. All sponsorship or encouraging comments gratefully received.

Short And Sweet Snippets For Sunday

An early Sunday round-up today as I'm off out this evening to see Helen Fitzgerald, Karen Campbell, Denise Mina, Louise Welsh and Harry The Polis at the event I mentioned earlier this week. Hope to report on that tomorrow.

As also mentioned, there's a nice double page spread on Scottish crime fiction in the Sunday Herald. I love this quote from Denise Mina: "If you throw a brick on Sauchiehall Street you'll hit someone writing a crime novel." And long may that continue, I say. Well, not the brick throwing on Sauchiehall Street, of course, but the vast array of crime fiction authors in Scotland.

Ian Rankin is currently working on a screenplay of James Hogg's 1824 novel THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER - demonic possession, murder, religious fanaticism, satire, horror, serial killing and madness. Excellent! I'm looking forward to seeing that.

And, talking of screenplays, a major adaptation of Kate Atkinson's BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM is underway.

Russel D McLean with a spirited essay on why he loves crime fiction. Russel's second Dundee set PI novel THE LOST SISTER is out next month by the way, and, if it's as good as his first, we're in for a treat.

Martin Edwards chooses Bill Knox's VIEW FROM DANIEL PIKE as his entry into the Friday's Forgotten Books series. I love FFB because it introduces me to authors I may never have heard of otherwise, and also highlights those underrated and neglected authors like Bill Knox.

The National Library of Scotland opens its new visitor's centre. Christopher Brookmyre is one of those named to appear at a series of events.

Reviews for Val McDermid's FEVER OF THE BONE, and THE COMPLAINTS and DARK ENTRIES by Ian Rankin.

An interview with Colin Galbraith.

And finally, adopted (by me!) Scot Chris Ewan launches a book club on the Isle of Man.