An open letter to Andy Murray

Dear Andy, Thank you. Thank you for all the great games, the bitten nails and the holy grails – those three grand slams, those two Olympic golds, that Davis Cup. Thanks for the dreams come true that we were so lucky to share.  The day you won Wimbledon for the first time was one of… Read more »

Keynote speech to the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Library and Informational Professionals Scotland

HELLO everyone. Thank you for being here today. My name is Peter Ross. I’m a journalist, and the author of a book called Daunderlust, which is a collection of articles from around Scotland, from a fetish club in Edinburgh to a monastery near Elgin. I’m interested in many different aspects of Scottish life, especially remarkable… Read more »

Glasgow is heartbroken, yes, but what a heart

IT was the saddest of Glaswegian sights: the statue of the Duke of Wellington, traffic cone on his head, bathed in blue light from emergency vehicles, as he looked down from his horse on to Queen Street where paramedics fought to save lives. Usually a symbol of the gallus Glasgow spirit, the statue now represented… Read more »

On watching Columbo

Not The Sopranos, not The Wire. Forget Broadchurch, Brideshead and even the sainted Coronation Street. The greatest  television series of all time is, in my view, Columbo. The cop show about the Los Angeles homicide detective whom the TV listings persist in calling a “rumpled lieutenant” ran between 1968 and 2003 for 69 feature-length episodes. This  longevity… Read more »

On reading Dickens

CHARLES Dickens liked to refer to himself as The Inimitable; over the last few weeks he has been inescapable. In television adaptations and documentaries, radio serials, biographies, stage plays and skits, the novelist has been sliced, diced and served up to the nation. Some of the dishes at this feast of Dickens have been superlative… Read more »