What do you think?
Rate this book
Hieroglyphics and Other Stories
A beautiful collection - charming, witty and touching - these stories give voice to a variety of different from the little girl who wants to look 'subtle' for her father's funeral, a child who has an email pen pal on Jupiter and an old lady who becomes a star through 'zimmerobics'. Often writing in a vibrant Glaswegian vernacular, Donovan deftly gives her characters authenticity with a searing power, aided and abetted by tender subtlety.
165 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
11 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Anne Donovan
19 books34 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Anne Donovan’s prize-winning short stories have been published in various anthologies and broadcast on BBC radio. Her collection Hieroglyphics and Other Stories came out in 2001. 2003 saw the release of her debut novel Buddha Da, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize; both books published by Canongate Books. A resident of Glasgow, Scotland, Donovan often employs the local, working-class dialect in her writing; as she says, it provides "a more direct line to the heart, you get closer."
Anne Donovan’s prize-winning short stories have been published in various anthologies and broadcast on BBC radio. Her collection Hieroglyphics and Other Stories came out in 2001. 2003 saw the release of her debut novel Buddha Da, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize; both books published by Canongate Books. A resident of Glasgow, Scotland, Donovan often employs the local, working-class dialect in her writing; as she says, it provides "a more direct line to the heart, you get closer."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 13, 2011
What goes around comes around. I lent Buddha Da to a friend last year; she was enthralled and has just lent me this collection of short stories.
Like all good short stories these are in at the middle, out in the middle, and constructed with an immense craft which belies their apparent simplicity, immediate transparency and intense accessibility. Then the scalpel sharp endings. I think "Donovan" and smile with a good feeling at the voice, yet these stories by and large deal with various forms of pain as well as celebration.
The collection involves relationships between mothers and children, the spaces between. Also the relations between men and women: this is very much a female vision, men occupying the outskirts, few sympathetic men but there is one in particular. Indeed, it's by suggestion that worlds are brought into being because how we are, who we are, is crucially and to a large extent a function of who others think we are. We are left to connect the understated 'hints' of the men who have left home, the brusque social workers, the lives of attrition faced by single mums trying to do their best.
Donovan usually weaves perfectly two or three related strands together, often by employing familiar objects or scenarios to stand for wider themes. The stories exhibit a range of method. Dindy. in particular, is a successful 'experimental' form that brings together the voices of three generations and deals with sexuality, woman-man, nurturing and desires constrained. The spectrum of stories moves from the world of the child at the beginning, through the adult to old age. The latter is done delightfully, gently and affectionately but one in particular has a more than melancholy tinge it veers towards the dark. Another story, Brambling is downright chilling.
A superb collection.
Like all good short stories these are in at the middle, out in the middle, and constructed with an immense craft which belies their apparent simplicity, immediate transparency and intense accessibility. Then the scalpel sharp endings. I think "Donovan" and smile with a good feeling at the voice, yet these stories by and large deal with various forms of pain as well as celebration.
The collection involves relationships between mothers and children, the spaces between. Also the relations between men and women: this is very much a female vision, men occupying the outskirts, few sympathetic men but there is one in particular. Indeed, it's by suggestion that worlds are brought into being because how we are, who we are, is crucially and to a large extent a function of who others think we are. We are left to connect the understated 'hints' of the men who have left home, the brusque social workers, the lives of attrition faced by single mums trying to do their best.
Donovan usually weaves perfectly two or three related strands together, often by employing familiar objects or scenarios to stand for wider themes. The stories exhibit a range of method. Dindy. in particular, is a successful 'experimental' form that brings together the voices of three generations and deals with sexuality, woman-man, nurturing and desires constrained. The spectrum of stories moves from the world of the child at the beginning, through the adult to old age. The latter is done delightfully, gently and affectionately but one in particular has a more than melancholy tinge it veers towards the dark. Another story, Brambling is downright chilling.
A superb collection.
October 16, 2017
Anne Donovan's writing has such a measure of control to it, and every single one of the short stories within Hieroglyphics is so human. My interest was held throughout, and I enjoyed the way in which she used both standard English and Scottish dialect. Donovan's collection is cohesive, and strangely underappreciated.
April 28, 2017
Excellent collection. Highlights- All that glisters, Brambling, A chitterin' bite, Hieroglyphics
November 1, 2011
another writer appearing at the Lancaster Literary festival Great Short Fiction day, and someone I'd been meaning to read since I saw Abailart's review
I liked these stories a lot, nearly as good as Agnes Owen (there are many similarities besides the Scottishness). You're reading stories here so rich in dialect that when you type a sentence out you get those red wavy Microsoft lines under every other word, or thereabouts:
We’d go tae the baths every Saturday morning, Agnes and me. Ah’d watch fae the windae, alang the grey, gluthery street, till ah caught the first glimpse of her red raincoat and blue pixie hat turnin the corner, then ah’d grab ma cossie, wrap it up in the blue-grey towel, washed too many times, and heid for the door.
What a wonderful thing - ‘gluthery’: no such word but you know what it means from the context. The author uses language in a rich, uncompromising way that evokes strongly the community the stories spring from. They really sing with pace and understanding, deeply rooted in the area (Glasgow) and its various communities. The plots are usually simple, the first two are childhood pieces involving glitter pens (yon glittery stuff that comes in wee tubes), and I was worried that all the stories would be similar, and many are childhood/school stories (not all involving glitter pens), but they move on through middle age with themes of illness, divorce, affairs, to end up in old age with ‘Zimmerobics’ about someone in a nursing home who gets a new lease of energy when an exercise instructor enters her life. Again a simple but effective piece.
A couple of other stories are more complex but just as striking. Donovan also experiments in pieces like 'Dindy' which begins:
Dindy dindy dindy says Tommam.
Bingy bingy bingy.
Sprinkled throughout are wonderful sentences like They’re all the same, men, anyway, there’s not one of them’s worth the heat in his drawers.
I have to say that I spent a pleasant evening with Anne after the readings so I may be biased.
I liked these stories a lot, nearly as good as Agnes Owen (there are many similarities besides the Scottishness). You're reading stories here so rich in dialect that when you type a sentence out you get those red wavy Microsoft lines under every other word, or thereabouts:
We’d go tae the baths every Saturday morning, Agnes and me. Ah’d watch fae the windae, alang the grey, gluthery street, till ah caught the first glimpse of her red raincoat and blue pixie hat turnin the corner, then ah’d grab ma cossie, wrap it up in the blue-grey towel, washed too many times, and heid for the door.
What a wonderful thing - ‘gluthery’: no such word but you know what it means from the context. The author uses language in a rich, uncompromising way that evokes strongly the community the stories spring from. They really sing with pace and understanding, deeply rooted in the area (Glasgow) and its various communities. The plots are usually simple, the first two are childhood pieces involving glitter pens (yon glittery stuff that comes in wee tubes), and I was worried that all the stories would be similar, and many are childhood/school stories (not all involving glitter pens), but they move on through middle age with themes of illness, divorce, affairs, to end up in old age with ‘Zimmerobics’ about someone in a nursing home who gets a new lease of energy when an exercise instructor enters her life. Again a simple but effective piece.
A couple of other stories are more complex but just as striking. Donovan also experiments in pieces like 'Dindy' which begins:
Dindy dindy dindy says Tommam.
Bingy bingy bingy.
Sprinkled throughout are wonderful sentences like They’re all the same, men, anyway, there’s not one of them’s worth the heat in his drawers.
I have to say that I spent a pleasant evening with Anne after the readings so I may be biased.
February 9, 2021
This was an interesting book of short stories. Some were written in the Glaswegian vernacular which I enjoyed immensely! The first story Hieroglyphics I would give 5 stars, it is a wonderful story and starts off the book beautifully. Then we have a story called Brambling which really makes no sense at all, would like to know what the author was talking about. Virtual Pals was also quite interesting, pen pals with middle schoolers and one is pretending to be an alien, I quite enjoyed that one! Dindy was one that also made no sense. Finishing with Zimmerobics was quite fun! I would recommend this book.
June 15, 2016
I'm so sad to have finished this - I loved it! I don't often read short stories, and I rushed through these too greedily I expect. I was a bit surprised how much I enjoyed reading in the west coast vernacular - it felt so familiar and comfortable, I kept hearing my dad and other people I know. Charting a course through the different stages of life and exploring various human relationships, I'd argue this collection also explores inequalities and societal changes. "Loast" and "virtual pals" were my favourites but I truly enjoyed every last one of these stories.
October 3, 2014
I love Anne Donovan's style of writing, even the Glaswegian. No. Especially the Glaswegian. Some of it takes me a while to work out but it's worth. She writes such gentle prose and I particularly like well constructed short stories. Get over yourself and give them a go, dialect and all!
March 4, 2012
Brilliant short stories. Anyone interested in Scottish language should read these.
February 7, 2025
His truck was lying in front of the fire, over on one side. She turned it round the right way, fished deep into the back behind the driver's seat. She was there. She poked her fingers in, fiddling till Goldilocks fell out. She placed her on the bookcase next tae Daddy Bear. Night night, bears. She switched off the light and left the room.
— 'The Doll's House.'
This collection of eighteen short stories – some vignettes, some miniature epics – gives the reader brief but telling insights of individual lives, all bar one set entirely in Glasgow, all bar one focusing on one female or other’s experience, all bar a few relayed in the distinctive dialect of Scotland’s second city.
Still, for all their seeming restricted visions Anne Donovan’s stories are universal: they deal with alienation, confusion, nostalgia, love affairs, fading memories, and many other benefits and ills that flesh is heir to and which we may well be familiar with, either personally or anecdotally.
And though each brief glimpse is a life lived differently there is an overarching sense of the seven ages of humankind, from mewling, puking infant to second childishness preceding oblivion: each story engages the attention from the word go, and reading them in sequence becomes an intense experience.
How does Donovan achieve what she does? These, superficially, are ordinary people, familiar enough that we know people like them; yet though the events that affect them may seem commonplace the trajectory their lives follow will be unique to them. Donovan’s talent is, I think, to make us care about what might be in store for them.
The title story, which opens the sequence, relates the transition from primary to secondary education of a girl with dyslexia, for whom drawing pictures counteracts the confusion caused by lettered shapes that dance around pages; will she, can she continue to defy the rigid conventions demanded by inflexible teachers? This theme of the individual, invariably female, whose individuality doesn’t quite fit parental or social norms is one that will re-emerge in several pieces here.
So, there are stories about small acts of defiance regarding suitable clothes for a funeral, a girl so desperate for her mother to be more demonstrative in her love that she contemplates asking Santa for help, a curious electronic ‘pen pal’ exchange – ostensibly from a young girl on Jupiter – which encourage a schoolgirl to take on board positive affirmations of her worth.
As stories succeed one another we start to see things from the perspectives of women – young mothers, lovers, women in sickness and in health – and, only once, from that of a young man who’s left his pregnant girlfriend back in Italy. Then we move on to the infirmities of age, to partners who have become strangers, to wandering wits, to organised distractions in an old people’s home. Throughout we have a sense of Glasgow as their whole world – though, apart from the central library or art gallery or a park, we rarely visit identifiable sites.
Most of them are about females seeking connection, with a parent, with a friend, with a partner, yearnings which may or may not be satisfied. I've largely refrained from giving details, and thus spoilers, about these stories because they each deserve to be experienced and appreciated by the reader in all their particular tellings. Deeply personal and occasionally idiosyncratic they may be but the general circumstances they outline are universal and will stir recognition in all but the unempathic. I found them, individually and collectively, extremely moving, and therefore unhesitatingly recommend them.
January 21, 2023
This is a fine collection of short stories by the author, whose novels Buddha Da, Gone Are the Leaves and Being Emily I enjoyed immensely. As a glance at the titles shows most of the stories here are written in very broad Glasgow dialect.
Title story Hieroglyphics is narrated by Mary, a schoolgirl who cannot read nor write because all she sees is the letters “diddlin aboot.” Inspired by her knowledge of Egyptians her class studied in Primary School she can however express herself using pictograms.
Clare, the narrator of All That Glisters, is also a schoolgirl. Her father is bedridden from asbestosis but she brightens his life with a Christmas card she made for him using glitter pens. The ending is bitter sweet.
The Ice Horse is a rocking horse kept in the cold shed ar Anna’s grandfather’s home. Her dearest wish is to look into its un-ice-covered eyes.
Virtual Pals is in the form of an exchange of emails between Siobhan and Irina. The latter was supposed to live in Shetland but he replies are Jupiter. This gives Donovan the opportunity to comment on the mores of young teenage life in Glasgow.
In Dear Santa another young girl who feels her younger sister is the favourite swithers about asking Santa for what she really wants for Christmas.
Wanny the Lassies is the tale of a schoolgirl causing problems for her male teacher by indicating he had inappropriate relations with her.
A Chitterin Bite draws a parallel between the betrayal of a young girl by the friend she goes swimming with who takes up with a boy to her later affair with a married man.
Me and the Babbie tells of the intense bond a mother feels with her new-born son.
In Away in a Manger a mother and her child go to see the Christmas Lights in Glasgow’s George Square. Both are shocked to see a homeless man in the background of the nativity tableau.
The Doll’s House her father made for her is being decorated by a mother for her son.
While out Brambling a woman and her child get lost.
A mature student takes some children for drama classes in The Workshop. It brings her into close contact with their male teacher.
Marking Time tells of a South European immigrant to Glasgow who remembers his time sweeping the beach of his home town when news of a bequest reaches him.
A Ringin Frost is the story of a woman whose husband is the only person who can warm her cold heart.
In A Change of Hert a woman searches for the reason why her husband’s preferences have changed after his heart transplant.
Dindy is told in short paragraphs illustrating fragments of memory.
Loast is narrated by an unmarried woman losing her memory for words in old age.
Zimmerobics is the bright idea of a young woman to lighten the existence of people in an old folks’ home.
Title story Hieroglyphics is narrated by Mary, a schoolgirl who cannot read nor write because all she sees is the letters “diddlin aboot.” Inspired by her knowledge of Egyptians her class studied in Primary School she can however express herself using pictograms.
Clare, the narrator of All That Glisters, is also a schoolgirl. Her father is bedridden from asbestosis but she brightens his life with a Christmas card she made for him using glitter pens. The ending is bitter sweet.
The Ice Horse is a rocking horse kept in the cold shed ar Anna’s grandfather’s home. Her dearest wish is to look into its un-ice-covered eyes.
Virtual Pals is in the form of an exchange of emails between Siobhan and Irina. The latter was supposed to live in Shetland but he replies are Jupiter. This gives Donovan the opportunity to comment on the mores of young teenage life in Glasgow.
In Dear Santa another young girl who feels her younger sister is the favourite swithers about asking Santa for what she really wants for Christmas.
Wanny the Lassies is the tale of a schoolgirl causing problems for her male teacher by indicating he had inappropriate relations with her.
A Chitterin Bite draws a parallel between the betrayal of a young girl by the friend she goes swimming with who takes up with a boy to her later affair with a married man.
Me and the Babbie tells of the intense bond a mother feels with her new-born son.
In Away in a Manger a mother and her child go to see the Christmas Lights in Glasgow’s George Square. Both are shocked to see a homeless man in the background of the nativity tableau.
The Doll’s House her father made for her is being decorated by a mother for her son.
While out Brambling a woman and her child get lost.
A mature student takes some children for drama classes in The Workshop. It brings her into close contact with their male teacher.
Marking Time tells of a South European immigrant to Glasgow who remembers his time sweeping the beach of his home town when news of a bequest reaches him.
A Ringin Frost is the story of a woman whose husband is the only person who can warm her cold heart.
In A Change of Hert a woman searches for the reason why her husband’s preferences have changed after his heart transplant.
Dindy is told in short paragraphs illustrating fragments of memory.
Loast is narrated by an unmarried woman losing her memory for words in old age.
Zimmerobics is the bright idea of a young woman to lighten the existence of people in an old folks’ home.
July 11, 2019
Almost twenty years old (several of the stories fractionally older) this collection of short stories continues to ring bell after bell - brief rings that only last a second or two, but are no less pleasant.
The language - predominantly Scots - shifts between a standard and non-standard dialect based on purpose. Readers from the West of Scotland, especially native Glaswegians, will find the prose smooth and easy to absorb; outside readers beware - because the stories are so brief, and predominantly interior monologue, the full acoustics of the voices may be hard to gleam.
Those voices are almost exclusively female, of varying ages from childhood and adolescence to adulthood and old age, and in a number of the stories age/maturity plays a factor in the relationships between characters. Mostly, there are two main characters per story.
There are several minor themes and an overarching one of ‘change’. These stories are well written, particularly in the use of symbolism (the ending of The Doll’s House was the sweetest symbolism I had encountered in a while) and form (Virtual Pals was very inventive).
In some of the stories the brevity holds back the quality (depth of the message) - a natural problem, but no less apparent. I felt this mostly in Marking Time, but also in A Ringin Frost and, less so, in A Change of Hert and Loast. All of these stories were still coherent, just - I felt - lacked the full punch they possessed. There was also a parallel regarding style and form: I felt Dindy was a little too fragmented and the incursion into light Horror with Brambling a slightly awkward fit.
All of the stories left a little thought in the head, though, which is their main purpose. I liked the range of subtleties referenced throughout (something explicitly reflected in All that Glisters), especially in the different contexts between the likes of Wanny the Lassies and Away in a Manger. And another excellent, novel surprise was encountering A Chitterin Bite and The Workshop: two acerbic tales of adulthood told with a real poise. Zimmerobics, written in English, was a lovely story to end on; heart-warming and played a fitting final note.
This collection is currently being used by the Scottish Qualifications Authority within their English course, presumably due to the accessibility both of language and context (issues of homelessness, alcoholism, single parent families, etc., are still on the national agenda as much as they were twenty years ago). This is what pushes this to be a five-star book for me, as whether it’s a school that can easily visit George Square (Away in a Manger) or pupils sitting in a classroom lined with asbestos (All that Glisters), there is an easily accessible locality to the literature that is comfortable to branch out from, engaging the readership.
The language - predominantly Scots - shifts between a standard and non-standard dialect based on purpose. Readers from the West of Scotland, especially native Glaswegians, will find the prose smooth and easy to absorb; outside readers beware - because the stories are so brief, and predominantly interior monologue, the full acoustics of the voices may be hard to gleam.
Those voices are almost exclusively female, of varying ages from childhood and adolescence to adulthood and old age, and in a number of the stories age/maturity plays a factor in the relationships between characters. Mostly, there are two main characters per story.
There are several minor themes and an overarching one of ‘change’. These stories are well written, particularly in the use of symbolism (the ending of The Doll’s House was the sweetest symbolism I had encountered in a while) and form (Virtual Pals was very inventive).
In some of the stories the brevity holds back the quality (depth of the message) - a natural problem, but no less apparent. I felt this mostly in Marking Time, but also in A Ringin Frost and, less so, in A Change of Hert and Loast. All of these stories were still coherent, just - I felt - lacked the full punch they possessed. There was also a parallel regarding style and form: I felt Dindy was a little too fragmented and the incursion into light Horror with Brambling a slightly awkward fit.
All of the stories left a little thought in the head, though, which is their main purpose. I liked the range of subtleties referenced throughout (something explicitly reflected in All that Glisters), especially in the different contexts between the likes of Wanny the Lassies and Away in a Manger. And another excellent, novel surprise was encountering A Chitterin Bite and The Workshop: two acerbic tales of adulthood told with a real poise. Zimmerobics, written in English, was a lovely story to end on; heart-warming and played a fitting final note.
This collection is currently being used by the Scottish Qualifications Authority within their English course, presumably due to the accessibility both of language and context (issues of homelessness, alcoholism, single parent families, etc., are still on the national agenda as much as they were twenty years ago). This is what pushes this to be a five-star book for me, as whether it’s a school that can easily visit George Square (Away in a Manger) or pupils sitting in a classroom lined with asbestos (All that Glisters), there is an easily accessible locality to the literature that is comfortable to branch out from, engaging the readership.
August 15, 2020
This was bought on a bit of a whim and I had no idea what to expect, but in the end, I think it was quite a good choice. This is a book of short stories, where the characters don’t, as far as I can tell, ever overlap with one another.
What I enjoyed most about this was challenging myself to read the Glaswegian dialect many of the stories were written in; this was very unfamiliar to me but something I’d be looking out for in future as it supported the characters very well. I also liked that there were stories written from several viewpoints; men, women and children, though more of them did tend to be female. I think my favourite story was Brambling - it is one of the tales that has stayed with me and I thought it was well-ended, though not happily-ended! The title story was another really strong one for me.
Something else this is good for, is dipping in and out. During the time I read this, I was either just about to get married or on honeymoon and it was nice to be able to read a full story in the spare moments I did have!
One thing I would change about this is that lots of the stories just seemed to stop, rather than end. This was frustrating as I would be getting really interested in a character, then their voice would be gone. I felt that Donovan sometimes missed the opportunity to fully flesh out the tale and that some of them could have been better edited (which obviously isn’t in her control).
I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking to read something the likes of which they haven’t read before, or someone who has limited time to read but hates having to put a book down!
What I enjoyed most about this was challenging myself to read the Glaswegian dialect many of the stories were written in; this was very unfamiliar to me but something I’d be looking out for in future as it supported the characters very well. I also liked that there were stories written from several viewpoints; men, women and children, though more of them did tend to be female. I think my favourite story was Brambling - it is one of the tales that has stayed with me and I thought it was well-ended, though not happily-ended! The title story was another really strong one for me.
Something else this is good for, is dipping in and out. During the time I read this, I was either just about to get married or on honeymoon and it was nice to be able to read a full story in the spare moments I did have!
One thing I would change about this is that lots of the stories just seemed to stop, rather than end. This was frustrating as I would be getting really interested in a character, then their voice would be gone. I felt that Donovan sometimes missed the opportunity to fully flesh out the tale and that some of them could have been better edited (which obviously isn’t in her control).
I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking to read something the likes of which they haven’t read before, or someone who has limited time to read but hates having to put a book down!
February 8, 2020
This is a wonderful collection of short stories, many of which are written in Scottish prose.
I love Anne Donovan's work and this sits with my favourites of her work, alongside Buddha Da.
Some of the stories in this collection resonated with me more than others, my favourites being:
Hieroglyphics
All That Glisters
Me and the Babbie
Away in a Manger
A Change of Hert
Zimmerobics
Highly recommend!
I love Anne Donovan's work and this sits with my favourites of her work, alongside Buddha Da.
Some of the stories in this collection resonated with me more than others, my favourites being:
Hieroglyphics
All That Glisters
Me and the Babbie
Away in a Manger
A Change of Hert
Zimmerobics
Highly recommend!
February 4, 2022
Most stories are touching and tender, the Glasgow voice is charming and it is nice to see a book that devotes so much space to relating - convincingly - the experiences of children. I think it would have been better if last story, “Zimmerobics,” had been omitted, it was too pat, too smug; I didn’t buy it that the YMCA song would turn an aloof, reserved person into the sparkling life of the party in “Eleanor Oliphant” and I don’t buy it here either. But a satisfying book overall.
May 20, 2017
This took a while to read not because I didn't like but because it is good to have a book of short stories to dip in and out of in between other books. I really enjoyed these stories especially All that Glisters, Zimerobics and Loast but each story is a standalone glimpse into relationships and in the West Coast of Scotland and both entertaining and thought provoking.
March 20, 2019
Probably more a 3.5; there was a great mix here. Some I really liked and others I just found OK.
I really loved the first 2 stories and the last two. All that Glisters was probably my favourites in the collection. 'Zimmerobics' was funny and sweet.
I really loved the first 2 stories and the last two. All that Glisters was probably my favourites in the collection. 'Zimmerobics' was funny and sweet.
December 2, 2020
Buddha Da was one of my fav novels but I could not connect with these stories.
I am sure that women will find this book so much more relatable, though it did give me moments to ponder on regarding the differences in our gender, and it left me uncomfortable, which may have been the aim.
I am sure that women will find this book so much more relatable, though it did give me moments to ponder on regarding the differences in our gender, and it left me uncomfortable, which may have been the aim.
October 10, 2017
You'll get used to the Glaswegian pretty quickly, and it's worth the initial slow going.
July 2, 2019
Decent stories, but hard going to work out a lot of the words. I struggle to understand Scots when they speak, the written version is just as undecipherable to me.
August 7, 2019
A great collection of short stories, very touching and true to life.
January 23, 2024
A great collection of short stories with a mixture of heartwarming, disturbing and melancholic elements - some were a bit too experimentally written for me.
Read
August 22, 2024DNFed at only a few pages. It's not keeping my attention
December 3, 2024
writing an english essay on hieroglyphics and all that glisters
January 19, 2018
A beautiful little collection of short stories of childhood, family and friendship with more of a flavour of old Glasgow than Irn Bru.
August 3, 2016
I can't recommend these stories enough. I was fortunate enough to hear Anne read some at an Authors Day. I can still hear her voice when I read her work. So many lovely stories. Favourite? Probably 'All that glisters'.
July 17, 2008
People, please do not eat the library books. Even page nibbling is wrong.
October 26, 2025
An outstanding collection of short stories written in Glasgow patter to make you laugh and cry.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews