Happenings 4

There’s nothing quite like a launch to share the book love. Last night, our friends up the road at the Scottish Book Trust threw a lovely party for Spirit of Jura (Polygon), a handsome compendium of writings resulting from the Jura Malt Whisky Writers’ Retreat programme. Will Self read a bit of a great short story, and John Burnside and Liz Lochhead wonderful poems. Jura malt whisky flowed. The canapés were, and always are, smashing.

This week we’ve received so many deliveries of an Edwin Morgan Archive nature that we’re on first name terms with couriers the country over. Brochures, storage boxes and badges are the order of the day as we prepare for the formal opening in just over a week. Delighted to have them, but where to put them! Maybe we’ll regress, build a fort and climb inside…

We had the first of our two Getting Into Poetry evenings. Lilias, eight intrepid travellers and some wine got acquainted on Wednesday night. We’re going to hear more about that next week.

We tried our hand at the Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Quiz! We’ll tell you our score if you tell us yours!

We had a flying visit from Alastair Reid, discovered a pigeons’ nest with babies in it over the close and had the windows cleaned – the latter is no mean feat with a building that’s ‘a poem in glass and stone’ by virtue of the former’s volume. 

To end on a televisual note, we’re looking forward, sideways and backwards to the BBC’s imminent poetry season, and were otherwise and unrelatedly heartwarmed by Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle…

We’re closed on Monday for Spring Bank Holiday. Long weekend ahoy! A good one, till Tuesday, to all!