I’m sad to share the news that my wonderful publisher, 404 Ink, will be closing in summer 2026, but I’m immensely proud to be part of the 404 team: I was a 404 fan long before I became a 404 author. Heather and Laura are amazing people and working with them, and with the wider 404 family, has been a real joy.
Category: Books
Stuff I’ve read or helped to write
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Now they’re banning the books
BBC: “A council has removed all transgender-related books from the children’s sections of its libraries, its leader has announced.”
It’s Reform, inevitably, and there’s lots of questions about this particular story: my gut feeling is that it’s social media posturing, because the only book I’ve seen cited wasn’t a children’s book and wouldn’t have been in the children’s section of any library. But there is still an important point here:
Creating a moral panic around children’s books is how Section 28 started.
As I wrote in Fierce Salvage, the anti-trans panic is bringing bigotry back to the mainstream:
While hate crimes against the entire community continue to rise, the media and ministers tell the nation to fear the victims of hate, not the people purveying it. And when you listen to the callers and contributors to Scots radio shows or read the columnists and commenters on Scots newspaper websites, something becomes clear: if the Section 28 ballot were happening today, too many of our politicians, public figures and peers would be voting to keep it.
Bringing bigotry back has been the goal of the genital-obsessed weirdos all along.
We’ve been saying for years now that history is repeating: the anti-gay, anti-lesbian demonisation of the 1980s has simply been wrapped in “gender-critical” ribbons. And this is a very clear demonstration that book-banning by bigots, a key part of trying to eradicate LGBTQ+ people, is not just a US phenomenon.
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Taking The Stand
The Stand comedy club is one of my very favourite places, and I’m going there again on the 9th of July – but this time I’m going to be one of the people on stage rather than one of the people in the audience. Don’t worry, I’m not becoming a stand-up comedian: I’ll be there to talk about music as part of Marginalia, a cultural show that promises to “massage your grey matter, tickle your funny bone and tug at your heart strings”. I’ll be appearing with comedian Christopher McArthur Boyd, the author Alan Bissett and poet Iona Lee. It’s fair to say I’m absolutely terrified and a little bit star-struck too.
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Twice as nice
I’ll be doing not one but two events at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival on the 10th and 11th of August.
First of all there’s 1995: Grrrls Aloud where I’ll be joining Emma Pollock, Cora Bissett and Chitra Ramaswamy, with a soundtrack by Hen Hoose’s Cariss Crosbie. We’re going to be talking about the other 1995: not the Oasis one, but the one where Garbage released their debut album and the Delgados and Chemikal Underground did amazing things.
And the following day, I’ll be in conversation with Gary West as we celebrate Scots music in the brilliantly titled God Save The Scene. Gary’s book, Brave New World, is a biography of the late, great Martyn Bennett.
I’m really looking forward to both events. I think they’ll be lots of fun.
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It’s oh so Quietus
And so it was that Marshall embarked upon a two and a half year project to research queer music in Scotland. Small Town Joy: From glam rock to hyperpop: how queer music changed the sound of Scotland is her wonderful, trivia packed, often fascinating and fangirling look at the LGBTQ+ artists that have shaped Scotland’s cultural landscape. She’s deliberately not aiming solely for a nostalgic, retromania style read either. After tracing historic lines, the second half of the book is a rich collection of her interviews and essays exploring current queer scenes, sometimes ones thriving in places where she least expects. (See her interviews with queer Scots trad folk musicians for example, or conversely, a notable lack of interviews with gay male rappers.)
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Time for a Snack
I’m a big fan of Snack magazine, the independent Scots arts, entertainment and culture magazine, so I’m really delighted to be in its pages this month talking about Small Town Joy. You can read this month’s magazine online for free here.
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Small Town Joy in Scots Whay Hae!
I was absolutely delighted to chat with Alistair Braidwood for the Scots Whay Hae! podcast about Small Town Joy. Here’s the video.
Our chat is also available as an audio podcast. More details and listening links are here.
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Here comes Joy
It’s publication day for Small Town Joy, my book about how queer musicians changed the sound of Scotland. It’s based on two years of interviews with musicians, music fans, grassroots groups and other fascinating folks, and I hope it’ll make you excited about the music it describes and the musicians who’ve been so generous with their time.
As my friend, the writer and crafter Karie Westermann, put it: “Queer people creating joy, crafting resilience, and finding community through music. It could not have been published at a better time.”
The book is available online from my publisher, from Bookshop.org and from good bookshops everywhere.
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I’m book of the month
“An absolute treat to read… This whole book feels like a mixtape lovingly assembled by a friend’s cool, knowledgeable older sister.”
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Joy as an act of resistance
I’m very pleased to reveal the cover of my new book, Small Town Joy, designed by Kara McHale. The book will be available in April and you can pre-order it from my publisher or local bookshop right now. Please do, pre-orders are a huge help for small publishing houses and indie bookshops alike.
After writing and promoting Carrie Kills A Man I made a conscious decision to look for, and to write about, joy. And this book is the result: it’s a history of how queer music and musicians changed the sound of Scotland, and in its pages you’ll hear from some incredibly talented and interesting people.
I’ll be talking much more about the book nearer the time but I had to share the cover. Isn’t it gorgeous?