45 Market Street
Tue 22 Sept · 18:30
22.09.26. 6.30–8pm Whilst indignation saturates Allan Cameron’s third collection, Things Can Only Get Worse, whose title is a reminder of Tony Blair’s unkept promises before his first mandate which led us into another NATO war of aggression aimed at terrorising peoples and purloining the property of other nations, this collection also praises the humanity of the great majority of people everywhere. Although Cameron is a writer who goes in search of paradox, there is no contradiction here. Valuing humanity in these cynical times goes hand in hand with outrage at the behaviour of the powerful and the politicians who serve them. We live in a period of insane and unforgiveable violence inflicted by the West on defenceless civilians with all the force of modern military technology. Of all the recent wars, however, Gaza takes on even greater demonic proportions not seen since the Second World War. Even silence is culpable in such circumstances, so the poet has reorganised the collection in order to underscore the horrors we are witnessing, whilst not forgetting that this genocide has historical roots in the European colonisation of the rest of the world, particularly Africa, America and Australia. About Allan Cameron Born in 1952, Allan Cameron went to boarding school at the age of six while also living in Nigeria and Bangladesh during holidays and, though he is no fan of such institutions, he found that it gave him a very sound education which compensated for the naval college he moved to in 1965. Mutual dislike prompted an early departure in 1968, and after that he could once more pursue his education while trying out various occupations for fifteen years in Italy and England – too many to list. This part of his life could be defined as “down and out in London and Florence”. In 1983 he went to Sussex University and afterwards taught there for five years without tenure. In 1992 after moving to Glasgow, his first translated book was published and he went on to translate twenty-eight more of them. In 2004 and 2005, his first two novels were published by Luath Press. Since then two more novels, two poetry collections and two non-fiction works have been added to his published works. The Scottish Review of Books summed up his output: “… there is … in Cameron’s work, a lingering spirituality, a faith that something soulful and significant is present in the everyday, in the ordinary ‘heroism of mortals’ he writes of. … he is dubious about ‘progress’, political, economic and scientific. … if Scottish literature has a true outsider, it is not Irvine Welsh; it’s Allan Cameron.” About Vagabond Voices Founded in 2008 and based in Glasgow, Vagabond Voices is an independent publisher that is both Scottish and fervently European in its aims. Vagabond is committed to introducing new titles from Scottish authors and translating fiction from other languages. Our library reflects our aims to promote literary ambition and innovative writers, and to challenge readers.
Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.