Search: David J Black ME/CFS

David J Black exemplifies Juvenal's dictum that "It is difficult not to write satire". Literary criticism will not be the purpose of this exercise, so those anticipating a promotional puff for Intermezzo or anything else by the much celebrated Sally Rooney may be disappointed. It’s usually a r

David J Black tells the tale of his encounter with Hollywood, whose prestige is, happily, diminishing rapidly. See part two in tomorrow's SLN. News comes that the $238 billion Netflix Corporation of Los Gatos, California, has developed an interest in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket to the extent that

David J Black reads the fine print of the Book Festival furore. Many of us may share the underlying views of those who believe we should be cutting back on the use of fossil fuels to save the planet, but scratch beneath the indignant morality of the latest attack by a number of Greta Thunberg inspir

Statue of Burns in Dumfries town centre, unveiled in 1882. David J Black reminds us just how famous Burns was. See part one here.

David J Black tackles the issue of the day. One of the more annoying things about the British media in general, and the navel-gazing BBC in particular, is the irritating habit they all have of prioritising so-called news stories which are so trivial and ephemeral they barely deserve to make the insi

And so the time has come to talk of David and Henry, and the crimes of which they stand accused. In David Hume’s case sentence has already been passed, his name now severed from the largest post-war building on Edinburgh University’s principal campus. Given that he had fixed ideas on bea

Editor's note: All animals are cancellable, but some are more cancellable than others. That is the inference to be drawn from the manner in which we pick and choose history's villains. David Hume is out but Marie Stopes, eugenicist and admirer of Adolf Hitler, is apparently in. Edinburgh Council has

A terrible fate potentially awaits any Scottish folk troubadour lacking knowledge of US copyright law should he or she be tempted to record or sing in public a Scottish variant of Woody Guthrie’s great American anthem This Land is your Land, This Land is my Land, for they could find themselves

Westwater Advocates has received 27 individual and two top tier rankings in the Chambers & Partners UK Bar Guide 2023. The stable is ranked Band 1 in the Employment and Family law categories. The stable membership is noted for offering “a good mix of seniority”, and the clerking team

The payout to the family of Lamara Bell has taken place — at long last. David Nellaney, the solicitor for the family, with proper professional restraint, described the delay on the part of Police Scotland as ”unfortunate". Rather the whole thing, to me, is a disgrace. The deaths of Lamar

The High Court of England and Wales has allowed an appeal by the Home Secretary against judicial review proceedings challenging the lawfulness of provisions under the Immigration Act 2014 preventing landlords in the private sector from letting to irregular immigrants. The application was first broug

With the kind permission of The Times, Scottish Legal News reproduces below the newspaper's obituary of David J Black. David was a gifted writer whose many pieces for us over the years, whether they followed the money or lampooned hypocrites, evoked both fervent endorsement and opposition. No one co

David J Black is underwhelmed by the US investor’s plans for a pod hotel in an elegant Edinburgh crescent. A mere few months have passed since Keir Starmer, chancellor Rachel Reeves, and trade minister Peter Kyle victoriously announced that they had secured a magnificent £150 billion dea

Small scale, unsubsidised, borne along on a wave of bookish enthusiasm, the ‘Writing Worth Reading’ cluster of 12 events at the Royal Scots Club can hardly be described as a competitor to the big literary beast which, not long past, was licking its wounds in a venue oddly described as th

David J Black discerns traces of Scotland in America. See part one here. Alasdair Gray was the quintessential Glasgow author. The city is imprinted on his text, albeit with a hint of his idiosyncratic urban metaphysic. With a grid street plan and a wise-cracking populace well seasoned with the desce