Author Archives: GlasgowAnni

The Archers: coercive control and domestic abuse

Amid a storyline on The Archers radio programme, writing in Common Space Anni Donaldson explains coercive control in abusive relationships and how people can seek help THE ARCHERS’ Helen Titchener really could use an independent domestic abuse advocate (IDA) right now. If Ambridge was in the west of Scotland she could just lift the phone …

Continue reading “The Archers: coercive control and domestic abuse”

Gartocharn couple fly high @GlasgowArtClub @ccfest

t This review first appeared in The Lennox Herald 29 January 2016 Linsey Aitken and Ken Campbell pull off a musical world tour at their first Celtic Connections gig. Like the wild geese taking off above Linsey Aitken and Ken Campbell’s home in Gartocharn on Loch Lomondside, a full house at the Glasgow Art Club …

Continue reading “Gartocharn couple fly high @GlasgowArtClub @ccfest”

10 women storming the stage @ccfest @SSeparation

THE sight of 10 women – some of the UK’s most creative and uniquely versatile traditional musicians – walking on stage at the Mitchell Theatre on Sunday 24 January for Songs of Separation as part of Celtic Connections had quite an impact.

@ccfest: Celtic Connections thunders in on The Carrying Stream

This review first appeared in Common Space 15 January 2016 “GIVE us a song!” Growing up in Glasgow in a large extended family of first and second generation Irish immigrants – all good singers – this was an order, not a request. I grew to realise the importance of song to those not long removed from …

Continue reading “@ccfest: Celtic Connections thunders in on The Carrying Stream”

Che or Chevvies? – Cuba’s Dilemma

“Communism sucks!”, so said the well-heeled and well-travelled English NHS Consultant as we discussed the state of Cuba during my recent trip there.  “Capitalism sucks too though,” I retorted, on reflection, rather too defensively.  “I know where I’d rather live…” he said.  The truth is poverty sucks wherever you live.  As members of a party …

Continue reading “Che or Chevvies? – Cuba’s Dilemma”

#indyref discourse highlighted sexism

This article was written for The National Saturday 29 August 2015 I was delighted, and genuinely surprised, to be announced the winner of the inaugural Write to End Violence Against Women Awards in 2013. Since then, Scotland has witnessed a dramatic shift in its political landscape which included some devastating critiques of mainstream media and its …

Continue reading “#indyref discourse highlighted sexism”

Women ARE Making History

West Dunbartonshire Women are making history A woman’s place was, until recently, in the home and it certainly wasn’t in the Scottish history books. Up to the 1980s and 1990s if you were looking for women in Scottish history, apart from queens and standout individuals like Flora Macdonald they simply weren’t there –  they weren’t …

Continue reading “Women ARE Making History”