The Cutting Room (Canons)

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Rilke, when my father left me his share in this auction house it was little better than a junk mart and organised fence. What is it now?' I raised my eyebrows; never interrupt the litany. 'It's the best auction house in Glasgow. But it'll not stay the best if you do things like this. There is no way we can shift that amount of stuff in a week.' In the crime fiction genre, sequels can seem unavoidable, these often entirely unnecessary follow-ups to bestselling books in which the story never quite feels as effortless as it did the first time around. While Louise Welsh’s The Second Cut, the follow-up to 2002’s award-winning The Cutting Room, does fall into this category – it exists within a world of bad guys, and is a sequel – it mercifully doesn’t read as a rehash so much as a welcome return to familiar, and clearly fertile, ground.

More tease, less strip | Books | The Guardian More tease, less strip | Books | The Guardian

The novel was adapted for the stage a year after publication, the world premiere taking place in the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in October 2003. [5] I made my phone call. It went no better than I'd anticipated. I promised to come in at five and explain myself. The rest of the afternoon would be spent on a rough inventory - furniture, paintings and miscellaneous objets d'art to be removed first. Rule number one: always move the good stuff first; that way you won't lose it or drop it, and if the deal falls through, you may still get something. The crew arrived at two, mutinous at the prospect of double shifts. I jollied them into a semblance of good humour - told them I was sure it would be thirsty work. I could see my commission ending up down their throats come the end of the week. When they saw what we had, they quietened down. The job was big. It was a while since we'd had a whole town house and the tight schedule meant we'd need extra hands - the usual unemployed sons, brothers, cousins, dragged away from their beds and daytime soaps for cash in hand.The novel won several awards, including the Saltire Society First Book Award 2002, the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Memorial Dagger Award 2002 and the BBC Underground Award 2003. [3] Adaptations [ edit ] Writer Profile: Biography, Critical perspective, Bibliography, Awards". British Council Literature. Hopefully this conveys the almost hyperaware way Welsh sets a scene through Rilke's observations. And I don't mean this as criticism, because it's not a bad stylistic choice at all. However, I do think it prevented me from viewing any of the other characters as fully three-dimensional personalities; to me, they all seemed too distilled when filtered through Rilke. This is a danger of any story narrated in first-person, but it is not one that The Cutting Room overcomes. He is quite the character, Rilke, a man who tries to pass for a respectable citizen, “but I am too tall, too thin, too cadaverous to look anything other than a vampire on the make”. Now uncomfortably into midlife, he remains a perpetually single gay man who spends far too much time on Grindr and balances a bleak worldview sustained largely on a liquid diet of whisky.

Louise Welsh - The Scotsman Book review: The Second Cut, by Louise Welsh - The Scotsman

More tease, less stip; Review: The Cutting Room". The Guardian. 31 August 2002 . Retrieved 14 August 2011. The reason you never had kids, Rose, is you would strangle them in the first week. But if you've changed your mind we could probably have them together. I owe you that much. You're forever getting me out of trouble and I never have to hit anyone in your defence or mind you when you're on a tear.'

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The Cutting Room (Canons) by Louise Welsh | Goodreads The Cutting Room (Canons) by Louise Welsh | Goodreads

Welsh studied history at Glasgow University and after graduating established and worked at a second-hand bookshop [2] for several years before publishing her first novel.

And it was good. Better than good. Antiques of that calibre hadn't seen the inside of a Glasgow saleroom for years, hadn't seen Bowery Auctions ever. Well, if it's going to get done, I may as well start now. What about personal effects - papers, letters, anything of a private nature you might want to keep? Have you been through them with someone already?' Blue eyes that used to be bluer looking straight at me. I should have stopped right there and asked her why, but I was already making calculations in my head, adding up time, manpower and money, wheeling straight into business as she knew I would.

Louise Welsh - Wikipedia Louise Welsh - Wikipedia

It was take it or leave and it's unbelievable stuff. Christ knows why they've called us in, but be glad they have. This could make us, and if we pull our finger out we can do it in a week. Look around you. What's in here right now?' I handed her my card and let her look me up and down. I could almost hear her assessment: hair bad, tie, shirt, suit good, cowboy boots bad. Well, she had a point, but they were genuine snakeskin.

Yes, Mr McPhee,' I'd said. Looking all the while at a pile of furniture reaching almost to the ceiling and thinking, You stupid old git, thirty-five years in this place. My brother had a second office at the top of the house. He had the attic floored and worked up there when he wanted total peace. It's one of those pull-down-ladder arrangements, too much for me. I would be grateful if you would work on that yourself. I don't think there will be anything of interest to me, more fuel for the bonfire I suspect, but I would appreciate your discretion.' Death Is a Welcome Guest by Louise Welsh, book review: A gripping survivor's story with shades of Agatha Christie". The Independent. 31 May 2015 . Retrieved 2 January 2016. From December 2010 to April 2012, she was the Writer in Residence for the University of Glasgow and Glasgow School of Art. [1]