Friday 15th November
Central Library 8pm
Canongate Crime:
Louise Welsh, Alex Gray, Hugh Collins
�5/4 tel. 01482 327600

Three very different and very accomplished writers from Canongate discuss crime, writing, crimewriting and Glasgow.

Hugh Collins was born and brought up in Glasgow. In 1977 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder that took place in a Glasgow bar. Released in 1992, he has since written two volumes of autobiography � Autobiography of a Murderer (1998) and Walking Away (2000), as well as two novels, No Smoke (2001) and The Licensee (2002).

Louise Welsh has been hailed by the Guardian as one of Britain�s best first novelists. The Cutting Room centres on an extraordinary character, Rilke, a gay auctioneer who uncovers a gruesome cache of snuff pornography. Grainne Mooney wrote �I was hooked from page one. Rilke is not Welsh�s only great creation. The supporting cast of misfits and outsiders, from the transvestite, drug-dealing Les to big-hearted Rose, are equally memorable� The Guardian

Alex Gray was born and educated in Glasgow. Never Somewhere Else is her first novel and is a highly visual and powerfully written tale of contemporary crime and retribution. While researching the book, Gray spent time with morticians, forensic pathologists and some of �Strathclyde�s finest�. Gray has previously worked as a teacher, folk singer and DSS visiting officer, and is very active within the writing workshop movement.
�Alex Gray is a welcome new member of the tartan noir pack� Val McDermid

Critical Eye - on-line critic