Some excellent coats in Urumqi

I’ll be at Waterstones, 128 Princes St, Edinburgh, between 6-8pm on Thursday September 29th. I will be talking about my travel/politics book ‘The Tree That Bleeds’, out now from Luath Press.

Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin approve!

The London launch for The Tree That Bleeds will take place at Arthur Probsthain, 41 Great Russell Street (just opposite the British Museum) between 6.30-8.

I’m delighted to have been asked to take part in an event at this year EIBF. I’ll be reading alongside Roger Hunt, whose book is about his experience as a hostage in Mumbai in 2008.

The event is on Friday 19th August, at 11.00 a.m. For more details of the event, click here

Dear Glaswegians,

I will be launching my book in your city on Tuesday 28th June, 7.30pm at the Scotland China Association, which meets at the Garnethill Multicultural Centre, 21 Rose St, Glasgow G3 6RE.

If you live elsewhere (such as Edinburgh), please stand by. Details to follow later in the week.

Tue 12 Apr 2011 “The Tree that Bleeds: Xinjiang after the 2009 riots”

See above.

A patas monkey

I’ll be reading on the shoulders of a few distinguished folk- first with Ron Butlin, the Edinburgh Makar, and author of The Sound of My Voice and many other acclaimed books, at Wordpower at 1pm on Thursday August 12th.

Then I’ll be reading at the Golden Hour at the Forest cafe on Wednesday 25th Wednesday 18th from 8pm. Also on the bill is AL Kennedy, whose novel Day won the Costa award, and more importantly, is amazing. As in a great book that actually deserved to win. She, like Ron, is also a wonderful reader, so this should appeal to my enemies as well as my few allies: come and see my literary ass get kicked by these people.

I’ll be giving a short reading in the bookshop at 4 p.m. on Monday 17th August.

I’ll be reading at the Golden Hour, on Wednesday, August 19th (8 p.m. till late) at the Forest Cafe. It will be almost the same line up as on our recent European tour, which some have said was ‘the greatest triumphal procession through Europe’s capitals since Napoleon’s’ (which one, they did not specify). Exit polls for the audience showed that amongst the single people who attended, 63.2% were taken home by someone who cared for them very much.

So if were not there, and were not kissed, please, for your own good, come along.

Readers / Writers:

Jen Hadfield - a remarkably original and inventive poet who recently won the TS Eliot prize.

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Ryan Van Winkle – poems & stories from the Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library.

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Ericka Duffy – hot new prose from her hot new chapbook called The Succubus!

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Jason Morton – stories that can eat bricks.

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Jane Flett - seamstress of most fetching stories.

Music / Song Writers:

Billy Liar – Acoustic + infectious punk.

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Jed Milroy – singer songwriter and hunter finally back from the Woods.

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Withered Hand – intense, eccentric, bittersweet and very wry original songs.

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Jonny Berliner – Joyus songs about crustacaens, exhaustion, and gluecose.

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The Black Diamond Express – a rocking, hell-playing, old time string band.

Visual Amazement:

Paper Cinema and Kora -

A cast of hand-drawn marionettes are magically brought to life. This is what happens at the accidental meeting of inkblots, photocopies, cardboard, angle-poise lamps, the occasional table, video technology, a laptop and a banana box.

The tour diary for The Golden Hour European Tour is up at Drowned In Sound along with photos and video (which apparently features me on a swing). Many thanks to the Scottish Arts Council for funding the trip, and to the many venues that hosted us, in particular Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, where Sylvia and Hilary did so much to make the night a riotous success.