"Pussy Snorkels, they're called..."

Mes Amis

Last night saw two of the grandest minds in modern fiction gather in Edinburgh to... oh, who am I kidding, it was just Ray and Al doing a reading and signing... mind you, Al is smart enough to have two brains so that makes my first statement quite true.

Alan Bissett, literary writer and all round top fella, took on the uneasy task of chairing these two rephrobates at the Edinburgh Waterstones West End as they read the foulest moments they could from their books (Al opting for the infamous "Pussy Snorkel" conversation from Kiss Her Goodbye" and Ray reading Mo Tiernan's thoughts on Predator 2 from "Saturday's Child") and fielded questions from Mr Bissett who seemed, at one point, to want to start talking about bums but quickly progressed onto the proper questions one might expect from a literary writer.

It was, all told, a really cool event (despite the fact that some interview chap - honestly, no one knew who he was: he was writing for some obscure ezine - almost ensured that Ray was late for the event) with a good turnout (including, apparently, Ian Rankin who skulked somewhere near the free wine). More importantly, seeing the finished copies of Saturday's Child I was thrilled to see a quote from the Crime Scene Scotland review on the front ("Dirty, hard and fast" but it doesn't say whether I mean Ray or the novel) and did a little dance of joy much to the bemusement of those around me.

These guys are two of the best damn writers working at the moment in any genre and not only that but they're remarkably entertaining, too, and if you have a chance to see a little reading with either of them I'd say do so: and buy their books while you're at it!

Au revoir

Russel