Latest news with #ShuggieBain
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart's highly-anticipated new novel announced
Scottish-American novelist Douglas Stuart's third novel is a "tender and devastating story of love and religion, of a father and son, art and landscape" and is set for publication in 2026. Booker-Prize winning author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo is set to release a new novel. Douglas Stuart's next project is expected to be another tender and poignant powerhouse work, and was acquired by Picador to be released in 2026. Titled John of John, the book is set in the Isle of Harris and is described as a 'tender and devastating story' about love, religion, family secrets and sexuality. The story follows Cal Macleod, a young man returning home to his father, John, and grandmother in a small village in the Outer Hebrides at the end of the 90s. A recent art school graduate, Cal is drawn home to the family croft under the pretence of caring for his ailing grandmother. But when Cal returns home, he quickly discovers that not everything is as his father made it out to be and is also drawn back 'into a world of suppressed emotion and terrible secrecy'. In the words of the novel's author: '[John of John] is a story about looking for love. It's a story about looking for self. But Cal has left behind many broken relationships when he left the island, and he's got to come back and face them all. 'And the family, although they're living in this one small croft house, are all keeping some kind of secret from each other.' In this intense and intimate family portrait, Cal and John both keeping their sexuality secret threatens both their relationship and their own lives. John of John is currently set to be published on May 21, 2026. At this time, you can pre-order a hardback copy from Waterstones for £20. Stuart shared in a video for Waterstones: 'I'm really excited. It's my third novel, it's my new novel, and I hope you enjoy meeting the Macleod family and everyone that comes into their life.' Douglas Stuart is a Scottish-American author and has written two novels to date: Shuggie Bain (2020) and Young Mungo (2022). Both of Stuart's previous two works have drawn on his troubled family upbringing and his experience being gay in a claustrophobic Glasgow community coloured by toxic masculinity and poverty. Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We'd love to hear from you! Stuart grew up on a housing estate in Glasgow and earned a master's degree from the Royal College of Art before moving to New York City at 24 to work as a fashion designer. He wrote his debut novel Shuggie Bain while working 12-hour shifts as a senior director of design. Based on Stuart's childhood, Shuggie Bain is set in Glasgow in the 1980s and tells the story of a young boy growing up with a mother who is battling addiction. Stuart explores poverty, tough upbringings and alcoholism in his book. Shuggie Bain went on to receive widespread literary acclaim, winning the esteemed Booker Prize in 2020. A24 picked up rights to adapt Shuggie Bain more than four years ago and the BBC greenlit the project in late 2022, but it is still seeking international finance, as reported by Deadline.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
British culture is excluding the majority. Labour is to blame
The arts have a class problem. I can't believe I'm writing this in 2025, but it's true – in fact, the situation is worse than ever. Class is on my mind thanks to the news that New Writing North, a charity based in Newcastle, has launched an initiative called The Bee. Backed by Michael Sheen, The Bee will include a literary magazine, a podcast and an outreach programme in an attempt to increase working-class representation. They'll even offer an 'alternative canon' of fiction that includes New Grub Street by George Gissing and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. New Writing North is an important organisation, and the involvement of Sheen will hopefully add star wattage to a serious crisis. The Sutton Trust, which monitors social mobility in the UK, reported in 2014 that only 12 per cent of those who worked in publishing came from working-class backgrounds; the proportion of middle-class workers has risen steadily since. I fear that as advances for novels and publishing salaries continue to stagnate, talented youngsters will choose better-paid and more secure professions such as law or accountancy. We're too easily fooled by the odd high-profile success. Much was made, for instance, and quite rightly, of Douglas Stuart's assured 2020 debut novel Shuggie Bain which drew on his impoverished and dysfunctional Scottish childhood. But Stuart wasn't a young voice who'd been financially cushioned – he was a working professional in his mid-forties, a boy who'd grown up poor in the 1980s and through talent and determination forged a successful career in the New York fashion world. It isn't just books. Careers in the arts are, in generally, badly paid, and any working-class youngster hoping for a career in theatre, opera or visual art (whether as an artist or behind the scenes) will struggle to make a living. Even pop, once seen as the preserve of the working-class young, feels as if it's becoming increasingly bourgeois. Charli XCX, Mumford and Sons, The Last Dinner Party – so many leading musicians can boast of a pukka education. This has been the case for a couple of decades now – but once upon a time it was just Joe Strummer and the majority of Genesis. The depressing thing about all of this is that we have gone backwards. Social mobility, in truth, ended at some point in the 1970s. Blame the Labour Party: under their education secretary Anthony Crosland, they scrapped a grammar-school system that had worked perfectly well for 40 years and thus – surprisingly for a bunch of socialists – blocked poor children's path to a brighter future. Tracey Emin proved that a non-Establishment voice still had the power to make a mark on the cultural landscape - Lion Television Up to this point, the grammar had been the great social leveller. It ensured that British artistic talent was diverse: we had actors such as Eileen Atkins, artists such as David Hockney, and authors such as David Storey and Shelagh Delaney. Yes, as Britain boomed in the years that followed, the less privileged could still gain a foothold and make a decent living – an artist such as Tracey Emin proved that a non-Establishment voice still had the power to make a mark on the cultural landscape. And, superficially at least, efforts have been made to make the arts more diverse. Most big organisations now have outreach programmes in a bid to make culture less posh. But while this is laudable, granting someone access to culture isn't the same as helping them to pursue a career in it. In talking about this problem, we say 'working class' as a catch-all; but, in truth, it's no longer only working-class Britons who are being shut out from culture. If you're from a bog-standard middle-class family with a household salary of £35,000 – pretty much the national average – it's unlikely that you'll be able to afford the luxury of trying to write that novel or screenplay. There's a reason you don't hear of many playwrights who are the children of nurses or primary-school teachers. And experience bears this out: the vast majority of professionals I encounter in the arts are well-to-do. Time and again, I meet people with lovely, creative jobs and wonder: 'How on earth can you afford to live in West Hampstead?' And then the penny drops. English actress Eileen Atkins in 1966 - Evening Standard/If Labour were to blame for essentially destroying social mobility 50 years ago, then they are hardly making amends under Keir Starmer. Earlier this year, the Prime Minister did address the 'posh problem' in the arts when he acknowledged that almost half of British cultural stars nominated for an award over the past decade were privately educated. He also recognised that the UK creative industries are worth £1.25 billion to the economy, and pledged to make the arts more accessible. These are useful facts, but there has to be more than words. The problem is that nobody is joining up the dots here. The promised access will not necessarily materialise into any sort of career opportunities for those from a poorer background. Unless arts organisations or publishers can start to make starting salaries more attractive, culture will continue to be ruled by an elite minority. And the issue isn't simply one of money: introducing a new generation of youngsters from all backgrounds to art and literature will have benefits to them, and in due course, to older Britons too (in the culture they create). To keep pressing for this has never seemed more important, especially in a country where the arts in education, under the last Conservative government, were denuded. I hope The Bee, and projects like it, can succeed. Otherwise, effecting real change, and creating a meritocracy that cuts across class barriers in the way that it did until half a century ago, will forever feel like an impossible dream. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
British culture is excluding the majority. Labour is to blame
The arts have a class problem. I can't believe I'm writing this in 2025, but it's true – in fact, the situation is worse than ever. Class is on my mind thanks to the news that New Writing North, a charity based in Newcastle, has launched an initiative called The Bee. Backed by Michael Sheen, The Bee will include a literary magazine, a podcast and an outreach programme in an attempt to increase working-class representation. They'll even offer an 'alternative canon' of fiction that includes New Grub Street by George Gissing and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. New Writing North is an important organisation, and the involvement of Sheen will hopefully add star wattage to a serious crisis. The Sutton Trust, which monitors social mobility in the UK, reported in 2014 that only 12 per cent of those who worked in publishing came from working-class backgrounds; the proportion of middle-class workers has risen steadily since. I fear that as advances for novels and publishing salaries continue to stagnate, talented youngsters will choose better-paid and more secure professions such as law or accountancy. We're too easily fooled by the odd high-profile success. Much was made, for instance, and quite rightly, of Douglas Stuart's assured 2020 debut novel Shuggie Bain which drew on his impoverished and dysfunctional Scottish childhood. But Stuart wasn't a young voice who'd been financially cushioned – he was a working professional in his mid-forties, a boy who'd grown up poor in the 1980s and through talent and determination forged a successful career in the New York fashion world. It isn't just books. Careers in the arts are, in generally, badly paid, and any working-class youngster hoping for a career in theatre, opera or visual art (whether as an artist or behind the scenes) will struggle to make a living. Even pop, once seen as the preserve of the working-class young, feels as if it's becoming increasingly bourgeois. Charli XCX, Mumford and Sons, The Last Dinner Party – so many leading musicians can boast of a pukka education. This has been the case for a couple of decades now – but once upon a time it was just Joe Strummer and the majority of Genesis. The depressing thing about all of this is that we have gone backwards. Social mobility, in truth, ended at some point in the 1970s. Blame the Labour Party: under their education secretary Anthony Crosland, they scrapped a grammar-school system that had worked perfectly well for 40 years and thus – surprisingly for a bunch of socialists – blocked poor children's path to a brighter future. Up to this point, the grammar had been the great social leveller. It ensured that British artistic talent was diverse: we had actors such as Eileen Atkins, artists such as David Hockney, and authors such as David Storey and Shelagh Delaney. Yes, as Britain boomed in the years that followed, the less privileged could still gain a foothold and make a decent living – an artist such as Tracey Emin proved that a non-Establishment voice still had the power to make a mark on the cultural landscape. And, superficially at least, efforts have been made to make the arts more diverse. Most big organisations now have outreach programmes in a bid to make culture less posh. But while this is laudable, granting someone access to culture isn't the same as helping them to pursue a career in it. In talking about this problem, we say 'working class' as a catch-all; but, in truth, it's no longer only working-class Britons who are being shut out from culture. If you're from a bog-standard middle-class family with a household salary of £35,000 – pretty much the national average – it's unlikely that you'll be able to afford the luxury of trying to write that novel or screenplay. There's a reason you don't hear of many playwrights who are the children of nurses or primary-school teachers. And experience bears this out: the vast majority of professionals I encounter in the arts are well-to-do. Time and again, I meet people with lovely, creative jobs and wonder: 'How on earth can you afford to live in West Hampstead?' And then the penny drops. If Labour were to blame for essentially destroying social mobility 50 years ago, then they are hardly making amends under Keir Starmer. Earlier this year, the Prime Minister did address the 'posh problem' in the arts when he acknowledged that almost half of British cultural stars nominated for an award over the past decade were privately educated. He also recognised that the UK creative industries are worth £1.25 billion to the economy, and pledged to make the arts more accessible. These are useful facts, but there has to be more than words. The problem is that nobody is joining up the dots here. The promised access will not necessarily materialise into any sort of career opportunities for those from a poorer background. Unless arts organisations or publishers can start to make starting salaries more attractive, culture will continue to be ruled by an elite minority. And the issue isn't simply one of money: introducing a new generation of youngsters from all backgrounds to art and literature will have benefits to them, and in due course, to older Britons too (in the culture they create). To keep pressing for this has never seemed more important, especially in a country where the arts in education, under the last Conservative government, were denuded. I hope The Bee, and projects like it, can succeed. Otherwise, effecting real change, and creating a meritocracy that cuts across class barriers in the way that it did until half a century ago, will forever feel like an impossible dream.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgetown school district defends book review process, says HB 900 caused changes
After directing librarians to pull more than 100 books at two high schools for review, the Georgetown school district announced this week that at least 33 of the titles can remain on the shelves. The district will also recommend Monday that 25 more titles be made available for checkout, a spokesperson for the district told the American-Statesman. Among those cleared are Trevor Noah's 'Born a Crime,' Margaret Atwood's 'The Testaments' and Douglas Stuart's 'Shuggie Bain,' according to the list the district provided to the Statesman on Thursday. The rest of the books are still pending review for age-appropriateness and literary merit. They were singled out as part of the district's implementation of House Bill 900, a 2023 state law prohibiting "sexually explicit' and 'harmful' materials in school libraries, Digital Services Director Kim Garcia said at a school board meeting Tuesday. The announcement comes after the district threatened to discipline a Georgetown High School librarian who had refused to pull 150 copies of books for review. The librarian, Susan Cooper, said she felt the sweep violated students' First Amendment rights. 'GISD has gone beyond HB 900 requirements and is using the law to remove books it finds inappropriate,' Cooper said during public comment Tuesday. Garcia and Georgetown school Superintendent Devin Padavil rejected Cooper's characterization of the change as a 'book ban.' 'We are not banning books,' Padavil told the audience at the school board's Tuesday meeting. A committee of seven people — high school teachers, three secondary librarians and two district administrators —makes the final determination on each title, according to Garcia. They are reviewing all the titles that a vendor, Follett, had rated 'Adult' with 'Mature' themes, except those used in past Advanced Placement English literature exams, as the Statesman previously reported. 'The idea of mature themes consists of a range of topics,' Garcia said. 'As such, our review process consists of looking at the books in our collections to make sure they are age-appropriate and have literary merit.' She said the new selection criteria will also apply to new purchases. Titles still in the queue for review include the 'Court of Thorns and Roses' fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas and 'It ends with us' by Colleen Hoover. In public comments, Cooper criticized the school for using artificial intelligence to help evaluate the library materials. The district defended it as a tool to facilitate research. 'Ms. Cooper is not accurate in implying that AI is being used to determine whether a book aligns with policy,' Georgetown district spokeswoman Melinda Brasher wrote in an email Thursday to the Statesman. 'Rather, it is being used as a tool to inform the committee about content that may not be age-appropriate. These books can then be prioritized for a more complete review, which includes reading the book in its entirety and reviewing it alongside a rubric, before making a determination.' All titles are still available for checkout at Georgetown High School, but a number of them will remain absent from the East View High School library catalog and shelves until the review is complete. 'We are hoping that within weeks, perhaps months, that we are able to bring (the review) to a conclusion,' Padavil said. Since the Statesman first reported on the directive to remove the books for review on March 27, more than 1,200 people have signed a petition urging Georgetown High School to "come to a solution on the issue" of book bans. 'It's not the board or the committee's place to decide what should or should not be in our libraries,' Brooke Thomas, a Georgetown High School junior who created the petition, said at Tuesday's meeting. "Ms. Cooper has not only stood up for the students, but also the parents of Georgetown High School." Thomas read out some of the books on the review list, describing why they were important to her. Rupi Kaur's 'Milk & Honey' 'makes you feel less alone,' she said. "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregory Maguire tells the story of "injustice and prejudice." Padavil thanked Thomas for providing administrators with her feedback. 'Student voice is very important to us,' he said. 'It takes a lot of courage to come up here and advocate for what is right, so thank you.' Four of Thomas' friends, all Georgetown High students, also attended the meeting to support Cooper and oppose any book removals. Martha Winters, a Georgetown resident who attended the meeting, said none of the books should be removed from the shelves. "We have First Amendment rights. We have a right to read what we like," Winters told the Statesman after the board meeting. Speaking of students, she added, "If they're not exposed to various forms of literature, then where are they? They have nothing to compare to." In her public comments, Cooper invited the board and audience members to meet with her one-on-one at the school library to view the campus' collection. "I just hope the district does the right thing and sends all the books back and basically starts from scratch, and stops trying to push this through the easy way," she said, adding, "We'll see what happens." This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Georgetown school district returning some books to library shelves
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BBC to cut spending on new shows by £150m as streaming wars bite
The BBC is to spend £150m less on new shows in the coming year as it warned of an 'unprecedented' funding challenge for British television. The public service broadcaster said it plans to spend just over £2.5bn on programming in the current financial year, down from almost £2.7bn last year. It follows industry-wide warnings of a funding crisis for British programmes amid growing competition from streaming rivals such as Netflix. A gold rush of investment from US companies has driven up the cost of making shows, while TV executives have warned that streaming services are shunning co-productions as they look to retain full ownership of rights. The BBC has previously said that a number of its productions, including an adaptation of Douglas Stuart's award-winning novel Shuggie Bain, are 'stuck in limbo' owing to a lack of cash. The funding drought has prompted calls for a government intervention, with proposals including a shake-up of existing tax incentives or even a new 'Netflix tax' on streaming companies. In its annual plan published on Monday, the BBC said it was facing an 'unprecedented content funding challenge'. It added: 'Without intervention, it will be difficult to maintain the current ambition and volume of UK content.' It comes amid a broader funding squeeze for the BBC, which is now locked in discussions with ministers over the future of the licence fee. The corporation last year rolled out sweeping cuts to jobs and programming as Tim Davie, the BBC's director general, tried to plug a black hole in its finances of nearly £500m. Bosses said they had cut 2,000 roles over the last five years but warned this approach was 'no longer sustainable'. The BBC had said it expected to return to a surplus in the coming year. However, the broadcaster warned today that a further deficit of £33m is expected due to delays in some cost-cutting initiatives. The BBC forecast income of just over £6bn in the coming year, including roughly £3.9bn from the licence fee. That is up from £3.8bn last year, with an inflation-linked increase in the licence fee to £174.50 offset in part by a 1pc decline in the number of people paying the levy. The corporation said its budget was down by £1bn in real terms compared to 15 years ago. The BBC has been investing heavily in its streaming service iPlayer as it looks to stem an exodus of viewers to streaming services –particularly among younger audiences. The broadcaster said it 'remains a unifying force in a digitally fragmented world', pointing to major successes for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Gavin & Stacey: The Finale, which both pulled in more than 20m viewers. It also attracted large audiences for major sporting events such as the Olympics, men's Euros and Wimbledon. The BBC also emphasised the importance of its news output at a 'challenging time for global democracy'. The corporation pointed to figures showing the British public has more trust in broadcast news than in social media, while the BBC remains the number one news source in the UK. Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, said: 'The BBC's role has never been more important, both here in the UK and around the world, to deliver trusted, impartial news in a world of disinformation; develop and promote the most compelling home-grown content; and be the place where people come together for unforgettable shared moments. 'The BBC board fully endorses this plan, as we plot the long-term future of this marvellous organisation and deliver for audiences for generations to come.' Mr Davie said: 'We are focused on our mission to deliver value for all, through our journalism, our storytelling and our unique ability to bring people together. 'The UK's creative industry continues to change rapidly, as does the world around us. This plan sets out how the BBC continues to evolve for audiences, both on and off air, but also how we will support and invest in the wider industry.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
