Bigmouth Strikes Again: Carrie Marshall's blog

Carrie’s books | Carrie’s band

The cover of Carrie's book, Small Town Joy, and two review extracts. "An absolute treat of a read... a mixtape lovingly assembled by a friend's cool, knowledgeable older sister." - Gutter Magazine "Her exploration of queer music's escapist, visionary powers brings joy, not in small neasures." - The Wire

  • Three times three minutes of joy

    I’ve been trying and failing to persuade one of my friends that Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe is one of the greatest pop songs ever made, which of course it is. I was genuinely dancing to this when I played it this morning. Given that I was in a dressing gown at the time… [more]

  • Facebook needs a new broom

    Facebook is currently running an ad campaign telling you that it’s against hate speech. Facebook was simultaneously enabling advertisers to target people with an interest in “white genocide” just days after the Pittsburgh massacre. This is horrific. After selecting “white genocide conspiracy theory” as an ad target, Facebook provided “suggestions” of other, similar criteria, including interest… [more]

  • Writing For Social Media, by me

    The second of my British Computer Society books was published as an ebook today. The print editions of the series (there are four books in total) will go on sale in a couple of weeks. Here’s the info: Writing for social media is different to standard business writing and it can be difficult to get… [more]

  • The right side of history, and of science

    Law.com: Dozens of companies, including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and The Coca-Cola Co., pushed back against recent attempts by the Trump administration to reduce protections for transgender people under federal civil rights laws. They instead stressed the importance of equality in a public statement released Thursday. The 56 companies include major financial institutions, tech companies and… [more]

  • Out

    Two years ago today, I began coming out as trans. I say “began” because while the initial announcement is an event, it’s merely the beginning of a process. I come out all over again every time I walk out the door, every time I pick up the phone, every time I meet someone new. Not… [more]

  • Ignoreland

    Another day, another horrific right-wing despot is elected to office. Today it’s Brazil. Writing for Buzzfeed News, Ryan Broderick retraces a fairly well-worn path about how the internet became such a toxic political force. But the fact that it’s well worn doesn’t mean it isn’t worth repeating. [Bolsonaro’s] victory tonight isn’t a surprise. He’s just… [more]

  • The wrong kind of visibility

    There’s a superb column in the New York Times by Thomas Page McBee about something I’ve been thinking about for a while: the problem of visible trans people in the media. Very few of the people who so enthusiastically celebrated our stories of “finally being ourselves” showed up at the rallies that took place across… [more]

  • I haven’t got a Scooby

    This, from Reddit, made me laugh. I’m going to a wedding today, my first one as me. The reception is fancy dress, and I’m going as Velma from Scooby-Doo. Jinkies! [more]

  • Unexpected item in the fast lane area

    I’m very cynical about driverless cars. To an extent I think they’re a solution to the wrong question: now that humans are largely a city-dwelling species (and one facing devastating climate change), the smart thing to do would be to make public transport better and more efficient. For example, I live in Glasgow: our buses… [more]

  • We’re not scaremongering, this is really happening

    (The title comes from this Radiohead song) I’ve used the phrase “when they’re done with us, they’ll come for you” a few times in this blog: my theory, for which there is tons of evidence, is that trans people are often the canaries in the coal mines. The people that are hateful towards trans people… [more]

Read me in books

My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.

My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.

I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.

A photo of the book Carrie Kills A Man.