POVERTY Safari, the debut book by writer, rapper and performer Darren McGarvey, also known as Loki, has been selected in an online vote for Book Week Scotland 2018 as "the most rebellious read of the 21st century."
For Book Week Scotland’s 2018 theme Rebel readers were asked to select their most rebellious read from a shortlist of 21 non-fiction books.
Claiming 44% of all votes cast, Poverty Safari was followed in second place by A Streetcat Named Bob by James Bowen.
The Good Immigrant anthology edited by Nikesh Shukla took third place.
More than 3,500 people participated in the online poll, which was open for six weeks prior to the start of Book Week Scotland, and drew in record numbers of voters.
Poverty Safari won the Orwell Prize in 2018.
Marc Lambert, chief executive of Scottish Book Trust, said: "I’m delighted to see record numbers participate in this year’s online vote.
"We always find that this is a great way to start new conversations about why different books matter to different people.
"This year, the spotlight is on books that challenge our perceptions and encourage us to ask questions about the way society works.
"Clearly, the top-ten is exceptionally strong and it’s great to see that Poverty Safari, a home-grown success story by a new Scottish writer, has topped the list."
www.bookweekscotland.com
A PERMANENT memorial to Scottish World War One poets will be unveiled by the Lord Provost in Edinburgh’s Makars’ Court today.
Frank Ross will be joined by representatives from Edinburgh Napier University, Scottish Poetry Library, University of Aberdeen, Edinburgh City Council, Scotland’s War and Dignity Funerals Ltd Scotland, who form the partnership behind the project.
Neil McLennan, chair of the Scotland’s War Poets Partnership Project, said: "As we approach the end of First World War Commemorations, poetic words and warnings of war will echo into another century.
"To help keep those words alive, some of them will now be etched in granite.
"This pertinent memorial is to those who powerfully captured the horrendous ‘war to end all wars’. Sadly this has not been the case and so we must keep educating on historic conflicts and on Remembrance."
Colin Waters, communications manager at Scottish Poetry Library, said: "The lines that attracted most votes came from Neil Munro’s ‘Lament for the Lads’: 'Sweet be their sleep now wherever they’re lying far though they be from the hills of their home'.
"Munro didn’t serve in the war, but visited the Western Front in his job as a journalist; moreover, his son died in battle during the war, with the poem dramatising his grief.”
Munro’s poem, Lament for the Lads, as well as a short biography will be read by pupils from Tynecastle High School, James Gillespie’s High School and George Watson’s College during the ceremony. www.napier.ac.uk
SOME of the art collection assembled by Charles II following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 will go on display in a new exhibition opening at The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse today.
Charles II: Art & Power includes more than 100 works of art from the Royal Collection, the majority of which are on display in Scotland for the first time.
George de la Tour’s Saint Jerome, c.1621–23, and Marco d’Oggiono’s The Infant Christ and Saint John Embracing, c.1500–1530will be on display in Scotland for the first time.
Also on display for the first time in Scotland will be Antonio Verrio’s The Sea Triumph of Charles II, which the Italian artist presented to the King around 1674 in an attempt to win his favour.
A major collection of Renaissance drawings also entered the Royal Collection during Charles II’s reign, including two great groups of drawings by Hans Holbein and Leonardo da Vinci.
To coincide with the exhibition in The Queen’s Gallery, visitors to the Palace will be able to see a newly installed, life-size portrait of Charles II in the Palace’s Throne Room, painted by John Michael Wright around 1671–6.
The Edinburgh-trained artist painted the King dressed in Parliament robes over the Order of the Garter costume, wearing the Crown of State and holding the new Orb and Sceptre made for his coronation.
The show runs from 23 November to 2 June, 2019.
www.rct.uk
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