I’m delighted that the tour of the National Theatre of Scotland production of Maggie & Me has been expanded to include an English stop. The play will be on at the historic Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton on the 6th, 7th and 8th of June. I think this will be your only chance to catch it down south!
Book tickets for the Royal & Derngate Theatre here.
Full details of the rest of the tour are right here.
Thank you for supporting the show - I can’t wait to share it with you!
Read MoreMaggie & Me at the Tron in Glasgow has now sold out! Thank YOU for putting your faith in us.
Read MoreHere is a wee behind the scenes shot from this series of Big Scottish Book Club. In it, you can just about glimpse our floor manager Karen and there’s hint of Peter on camera one and I think that's the silhouette of the back of Gareth on camera two. Out of shot are all the other people who make the show happen - the runners, producers, assistant producers, make-up team, the catering van, the cleaners who make it all sparkle and the drivers who get us around. Then there's lawyers, accountants, editors and commissioners and publicists and marketing folk. It is a massive team effort to make telly and I've been lucky enough to make lots this past year. So, thank you everyone at IWC and BBC Scotland. And thank YOU for watching and sharing!
The same goes for radio - it's a smaller scale but it is still not possible to do solo, even if it is only my voice you hear when you catch me in your kitchen or on your way to work. Thank you especially to Steven Rajam and the team at Overcoat Media and everyone I have worked with at R4 and BBC World Service this year. I am so proud of 'Whose Truth Is It Anyway?' You can still catch it on iPlayer.
Writing seems a solo enterprise and it is, in many ways. I've been working on my novel this year and it is mostly just me and my characters deciding what to do next. But the novel wouldn't be possible without all the folk at my new publisher, Canongate-the editors and assistants and marketing and press and accountants and literary agent and everyone else involved in taking a book from a thought to a finished thing you can hold in your hands. There is so much more to do, so I'll be disappearing back into my book soon.
I recently announced I'm adapting my memoir Maggie & Me for the stage with the National Theatre of Scotland. Its a huge honour. I'm cowriting the play with the wonderful James Ley and we are working with the inspirational Suba Das as our Director. I can't thank them enough for pushing me as a writer and lifting me as a person. The teams at NTS and all the partner venues are huge - theatre is the most collaborative and iterative work I have done so far. I can't wait for you to see it next year--we tour in May and June 2024. I am also slightly/moderately terrified about this.
Thank you for all your messages of support and your questions here and at all my events through the year. Your insights often come at just the right time. And in these darkest times it matters even more that we all keep sharing our stories.
See you for more in 2024.
Read MoreMaggie & Me is going to be A PLAY! ON AN ACTUAL STAGE! Well, stages - because it's touring the UK in May & June 2024. I still can't quite believe it!
You're the first to know - the news is being made public later today. There's so much to say: the process, the thrills, the sheer OMG of turning my memoir into a play, casting actors as my beloved family, as myself! But for now, I want to thank National Theatre Scotland for commissioning this adaptation - for having the vision to see the drama in my story and its relevance to the moment we're all living in and through. The NTS team really care about stories and storytelling and I'm grateful to them for all their inspiration and care.
I'm not doing this alone. The utterly fantastic James Ley and I are writing the play together. He's the award-winning playwright behind the hit shows Love Song to Lavender Menace and Wilf & Ode To Joy. I've never worked so closely with another writer. And I'm learning so much from him. Not just about the mechanics and process but also about the spirit and soul of what it means to move from page to stage. Again, there's so much to say about the process of working so closely together, especially on such intense material, but it's a joy. And all that joy will be there for you on stage!
I'm delighted to say the brilliant Suba Das is our Director and we couldn't be more thrilled to have him. He was chosen by Caryl Churchill to do the 40th anniversary revival of her iconic play Top Girls at the Liverpool Everyman. No pressure! That production was dazzling and he's bringing all his magic to Maggie & Me.
This play is an adaptation but it is also an update. It's ten years since my memoir came out. Maggie & Me: The Play explores what it takes to find your own voice and what it means to shape your own story. I can't wait for you to see it!
So, thank you for all your support. I'll be sharing tour details with you as soon as I'm allowed.
Read MoreWhen I've not been working on the play, I've been busy with my new novel! I announced it at the Edinburgh Book festival in August. It's a big gay Scottish love story! As soon as I can tell you more, I will. If you follow me on Insta you might have picked up the hints about who it's about. My new novel will come out in 2025 with my new publisher, Canongate Books - my shelves are full of their books so being published by them feels like a real honour and a proper homecoming. I've done a two book deal so the book after the novel will be another memoir but let's not get ahead of ourselves....!
Follow me on Instagram to find out the latest news about my book!
Read MoreWe're back on Tuesday 24th October for a History Special. My guests are Maggie O'Farrell, Rochelle Neil and Leila Aboulela. We'll take you to 15th century Florence and 19th Century Sudan via Windrush Britain.
If you miss the show, you can catch up on BBC iPlayer. Thanks to all my guests, to IWC for producing and to you for watching and sharing.
Read MoreI can’t quite believe this is happening - Sir Ian is turning the tables! Thank you to the Royal Society of Edinburgh for putting this event on. Tickets are free and the event is in Edinburgh. I hope to see you there. Details for tickets in post.
Read MoreWe're back! Join us on Tuesday 17th October, BBC Scotland at 10.30pm for a Crime Special. My guests are Irvine Welsh, Ann Cleeves and Lauren Lyle. We're talking true-crime podcasts, revenge in Edinburgh and truth in Shetland.
If you miss the show, you can catch up on BBC iPlayer. Thanks to all my guests, to IWC for producing and to you for watching and sharing.
Read MoreHere’s my column for The Independent on why writers AND readers will all suffer if AI systems are allowed to exploit our books.
Read MoreI so enjoyed this conversation with memoirist Lily Dunn. I hope others find it helpful too.
Read MoreDearest Salonista,
You, better than anybody, know all about the importance of endings - good stories need good endings. We’ve all sighed through a book that went on for fifty pages too long. Or wished for just one more chapter. Endings are not easy. In life, we rarely get to choose them. But I feel that now - after fifteen amazing years and over a hundred fabulous events with hundreds of incredible writers and a pioneering podcast and a spin-off TV show - is the right time to say: The End.
And, most importantly, thank you.
Books are just sleeping ink and paper – they need readers to bring them to life. That’s what you’ve done for Salon. You’ve been the life and soul of every party, since our very first night, in a glorified cupboard at Shoreditch House in 2008. We’ve popped up all around the world from Sydney to São Paulo, from Motherwell to Moscow, with iconic partners including British Airways, the British Council and the Women’s Prize. We’ve appeared on stages large and small and, once, memorably, in a field.
You’ve always been there listening and thinking. You are the very best readers. And some of you aren’t bad at writing either.
Hosting Salon for fifteen years has been the purest joy. It’s made me laugh and cry and often a messy combination of both. It has enriched my reading immeasurably and given me a writing life I could never have imagined. But my own books stubbornly refuse to write themselves. I’ve got a play on the way and a novel to finish then a memoir to start - I’m delighted to be joining Canongate Books, who will be publishing both of these! My next novel is a big gay Scottish love story, as you ask. At this point in my life, I need to do what every single of one our guest writers has done and make time for my own writing. I hope you get the time you need and deserve for your own creativity, whatever form it takes.
I’ll be answering your questions and sharing gorgeous memories on the Salon Insta and Facebook at 7pm GMT on Friday 15th September. I look forward to seeing you.
Read MoreChildren at a school in Paisley have been using art to showcase the importance of treating people with respect and kindness.
It comes after pupils at Kibble’s Goudie Academy completed a project that they called “We are not all in the same boat, but we are in the same storm” to celebrate the difference everyone has with a reminder to be kind.
Click here to read the full article.
Read MoreThe Big Scottish Book Club returns with an Edinburgh Festival Special! Damian's joined by Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead, Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton and Judy Murray.
Join us live on on BBC Scotland or BBC iPlayer - Thanks for all your support!
Watch The Big Scottish Book Club on Wednesday, 23rd August 10pm, BBC Scotland and BBC iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001pxk5.
Read MoreI better crack on with the writing then!
Thrilled to be joining Canongate and honoured to be edited by Ellah Wakatama. The whole team there is amazing and Anna Frame is already winning at All Things Publicity!
At my Edinburgh International Book Festival event today I said ‘I’m writing a big gay Scottish love story.’ And I am!
Thank you to my agent and friend Clare Conville for making it all happen. As always. And to all at Conville & Walsh.
You can read the full announcement at The Bookseller.
Read MoreFashion designers and brother and sister duo, Christopher and Tammy Kane have been trendsetters in the fashion world since 2006. They’ve dressed celebrities and world leaders, blending a playful, sexy aesthetic with working-class realism. Now they're launching a brand-new club night in London, the More Joy Disco. But how does their upbringing in a small Scottish village inform the glitz and glamour of their event? And why is joy such a motivating factor for the pair?
This documentary is presented by Damian and will be broadcast on Sunday 20th August at 7.32pm, you can also listen on BBC Sounds.
Read MoreMy event with Catherine Taylor on 18th August in Edinburgh is sold out! We look forward to seeing you there, but for anyone who was unable to get a ticket, you can contact the festival box office for any returns.
Here’s the full festival programme.
Read MoreSo, my novel is getting another airing on radio. It’s narrated beautifully by Tracy-Ann Oberman.
‘You Will Be Safe Here’ is set in South Africa in 1901 and more-or-less-now. It’s a story of hidden histories, the horrors of Empire and the redemptive power of love. And there’s a gay love story in there. It’s partly inspired by a real-life story and by all the history I wasn’t taught.
Published by @bloomsburypublishing in US and UK; @jonathanballpublishers in SA; @houseofanansi in Canada; @uitgeverijmozaiek in Netherlands and @cherchemidiediteur in France.
PS the weird Howard’s Way -esque flag in the ident (program guide) are nothing to do with the novel.
Read MoreI had the honour of becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature - I signed the register with Dickens’s quill! And my outfit accidentally matched RSL president Bernardine Evaristo. I chaired the Open Committee for RSL choosing 31 new Fellows. Was a special night!
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