Aye Write!: Top picks for Glasgow's Book Festival

The quality of Aye Write!'s events, and its increasing year-on-year success and standing means that you've got to be quick off the mark to secure seats to the big guns in attendence. So there’s no real reason to tell you about Limmy and his Daft Wee Stories; these tickets will be gold dust. Ditto Kate Tempest, introducing her debut novel later in April, along with Irvine Welsh'sThe Blade Artist that same month. Why even bother mentioning him? Just look at Jon Ronson. People swarmed to his discussion of online public shaming at an Aye Write! precursor in February. But Glasgow's Book Festival offers much more to tickle the literary taste buds in 2016 – here are five outstanding events we want to ensure don’t fly under your radar. 

Luke Wright: What I Learned from Johnny Bevan

Luke has been delighting us for the past couple of years during Edinburgh’s summer festival months. And while he's won a Fringe First Award for new writing (with Johnny Bevan), it’s live delivery for which he's known as a true master. Riotously funny and razor sharp in his spoken word performances, this is a must for those who demand to be both entertained and informed. Luke delivers ‘a hurricane of a performance’ in this story of friendship, politics, music and literature. (Thu 10 Mar)

James Crawford: Lost Buildings – From the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers

Crawford shows that from dry bricks and mortar it is possible to squeeze juicy histories. A charming and interesting orator – at the launch for this book he likened ancient chariot race gangs to modern day football casuals – here he takes twenty buildings, from the Berlin Wall to the Bastille, charts their lives and makes them human. Just like us, they are born into wealth or poverty, enjoy privilege or alternatively struggle to make ends meet. Their parents are gods, kings, emperors and governments. These histories are often surprisingly dark and bloody. The book itself is a beautiful tome which would easily function as a fine doorstep in any of these buildings. (Thu 10 Mar)

Stuart Cosgrove: Young Soul Rebels – A Personal History of Northern Soul

When he's not working as a sports presenter or actively following Scotland’s finest football team, Stuart Cosgrove is listening to and living music. His 2015 book Detroit ’67 mapped the sour end of soul and Tamla Motown. Here he presents a history of Britain's underground Northern Soul scene – whose followers often turned away from the mainstream Motown releases chronicled in Cosgrove's previous work. Young Soul Rebels is the story of this amphetamine-fueled movement, and the unknown records and the iconic clubs that made it famous: The Twisted Wheel, Wigan Casino and the Blackpool Mecca. (Fri 11 Mar)

Cara Ellison & Keza MacDonald: Inside the Minds of Gamers and Game Creators

For her Embed with Games project in 2014, Cara Ellison went on the road to single-handedly chart a world map of Indie game development, taking her from California and Tokyo to Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. When speaking to The Skinny last year, Cara termed herself “some sort of poltergeist trying to break through the windows of the internet.” She's here to talk about the book born from the experience, as much a travelogue and cultural study as it is about videogames. Cara is joined at Aye Write! by Keza MacDonald, one of the most respected gaming journalists around. (Fri 11 Mar)

Neil Mackay & Ben Macpherson: Chilling Thrillers

Neil Mackay’s debut novel The Wolf Trial publishes in May this year. It's a fact-based historical thriller, recounting the story of Peter Stumpf: tried in 16^th century Germany as a werewolf by a society unable or unwilling to absord the concept of serial killers. Likened to a cross between The Name of the Rose and American Psycho, little more needs to be said – The Skinny has taken an exclusive peak through its pages, however, and we can confirm there is no hyperbole to the hype. He is joined in this discussion on chilling thrillers by Ben Macpherson – born in Glasgow but now a columnist for Aftenposten, Norway’s leading quality daily newspaper. Scandi and Tartan Noir are still burning bright, so surely, by the rule of logic, a combination must be brutally brilliant. (Sun 13 Mar)

Any more?

Additional highlights include Noir at the Bar: an evening of crime genre readings (and drinks of course), featuring authors such as Denise Mina, James Oswald, Brooke Magnanti, Leye Adenle and Emma L Clapperton. Even more terrifying than this murder and mayhem is the news of politicians – Nicola Sturgeon, Kezia Dugdale, Ruth Davidson, Patrick Harvie and Willie Rennie – talking through ‘the books that made me.’ Call us cynical, but expect bland choices which ally with broader political ideologies and how they wish to project themselves to the voting public. Rabbie Burns for Nicola we predict. Atlas Shrugged, Ruth? Perhaps How to Make Friends & Influence People could do with Kezia's more in-depth study.

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Aye Write! Glasgow's Book Festival takes place between 10-20 March. Tickets are now on sale here.
@noirbarglasgow