The Herald

Keep Sight of Bigger Picture; Edinburgh's Booming International Film Festival Deserves a Break From the Snipers Who Shell Out Criticism

It's the oldest cliche about the British abroad: wherever they travel, they can be relied upon to scowl at the dubious foreign muck on the menu and bemoan the absence of egg and chips. One might assume that this brand of unadventurous conservatism would not afflict those sophisticated, broadminded individuals who attend international film festivals. I mean, the key word is international - it's a pretty safe assumption that the menu will differ from what's served up at your local greasy spoon ...

Airdrie; the Mood Is Buoyant but Much Is On the Line

Airdrie's house prices are on the up and could be given a further boost by plans to re-open a redundant railway line. Since last April, the prices have been leaping upwards, in June registering a huge 40% year-on-year rise. The average cost of buying a house in the town now stands at (pounds) 81,850 compared to (pounds) 68,048 a year ago. However much hangs on the future of the Airdrie-to-Bathgate railway line.

Coatbridge; a Fresh New Look That Is Stirring Sales

The housing market in Coatbridge may not be quite as buoyant as it is in neighbouring Airdrie, but it is certainly doing its best to catch up. For the last months house prices in the town have undergone a steady, rapid rise, at times showing a remarkable growth of 50% year-on-year. The year-on-year growth for July was 9% higher than the Scottish national average. As a result of this frenetic activity, an average house in Coatbridge costs (pounds) 77,400 - a figure which has grown by almost (p...

Wishaw; Still Below Average but Catching Up in Leaps

Wishaw home owners can sleep easy at night knowing that their investment is worth a good deal more today than it was just 12 months ago. In that time, prices for the average home have risen from (pounds) 68,350 to (pounds) 79,900, which represents 21.5% year-on- year growth. Prices are rising faster than the Scottish average. Since last January, prices have leapt by as much as 46% year- on- year in a seven-month period of sustained growth .

Cumbernauld; Ever-Growing Town Set to Receive Further Boosts

The boundaries of Cumbernauld have been redrawn many times in recent years as the area found itself at the centre of a housing boom. New homes are still going up and the local authority is to spend (pounds) 4m extending six local schools as a result of the rise in the number of children being enrolled. All this is good news for home owners who have seen the average price in the area rise from (pounds) 69,400 to (pounds) 79,200 in the last 12 months. The town centre - long outclassed by Stirli...

Motherwell; an Uncertain Future Affects Prices

House prices have spent much of the year bucking the national trend. While everywhere else in the country has been going up, Motherwell has been very flat, with the growth rate slowing to 6% year on year. Prices are now hovering around an average of (pounds) 69,400, not far off the (pounds) 70,000 line which the town's prices have bumped along for two years. That price is (pounds) 46,000 below the national average, just (pounds) 4000 up on this time last year, and (pounds) 2000 down on the fi...

She Counts Lisa Marie Presley and Cyndi Lauper As Friends . . . But Nothing Will Change the Straight-Talking Glasgow Girl

This is the kind of thing they ask you when you're Angela McCluskey. "What gauge of string are you using on the bass guitar on It's Been Done?" quizzes a journalist from Austria about her debut solo single. The song's been enjoying heavy rotation on Radio 2, but it's hardly the question on everyone's lips. The hack from Colombia is rather less specific: "Just tell me everything about your album." If you're Angela McCluskey, a lippy lass from Dennistoun, you're liable not to give the most sens...

Children's Classic Concerts Are Missing the Point

WHAT is going on at Children's Classic Concerts? Look at the organisation's brochure for its new seasons in Glasgow and Edinburgh and, superficially, it appears that the season is a continuation of the hugely-successful formula which the CCC administrators have evolved over the years. There are four concerts in each city, in a series devised by CCC artistic director Christopher Bell, who will also present two and conduct three of the events. The regular orchestras have been employed: the Orch...

Cds

Martin Taylor The Valley (The Guitar Label) 3/5 Martin Taylor's self-sufficiency as a jazz guitarist is long established, and the solo tracks on this latest album will simply extend a deserved reputation for being able to give the impression of three musicians playing simultaneously without sounding flash. Spanning gospel flavours, jazz standards and hypnotic African dance music, these are variously witty, elegant and blues-inflected examples of Taylor's art. The duets produce more mixed resu...

Strumming Her Stuff; Charlotte Hatherley has Stepped Out of the Shadows of Ash and Is Making a Big Name for Herself, Finds Doug Johnstone

Solo projects are notoriously ropy affairs. Freed from the perceived constraints of a band set-up, your typical rock 'n' roll musician can let loose all their worst, least commercial, self- indulgent noodlings in the name of finding themselves, either that or they can expose themselves as simply not having enough ideas or talent to pull it off on their own without the comfort zone of a band around them. But it doesn't always have to be that way. Step forward Miss Charlotte Hatherley, the guit...

We All Owe a Debt to Vision of Honest George

The douce rural village of Letham with its well-proportioned square and its prime setting in the wide, fertile country of Angus is an unlikely place to be associated with a man who Dr Johnson thought was "totally unfixed in his principles", adding ominously that "I should not trust him with young ladies". The same individual was a lifelong friend of another philosopher, Adam Fergusson, yet had a reputation as a practical joker with a robust wit, perhaps the reason why James Boswell was embarr...

Hotspot: Clackmannanshire

If there is a red glow in the sky over the hills of central Scotland, it's not just the sunset. Tiny little Clackmannanshire, the smallest local authority areas, is also the hottest of property hotspots. The most recent figures, relating to July, show that house prices in the shadow of the Ochil hills are booming. Since January, prices have sustained a 30% year-on-year rise, at one point recording a whopping 62% increase. The average (mean) price of a house is approaching (pounds) 100,000, co...

Introducing a New Look at Property

Welcome to The Herald's House Price Guide, a unique monthly supplement to monitor what houses are selling for. The dizzy climb in prices over the last few years means that everyone, whether they intend to move or not, will be asking themselves: "What could my house be worth?" For this reason, The Herald has entered a special partnership with MyHousePrice.Com Ltd, the foremost property price provider, to analyse selling prices around the country, town by town, area by area.

Videos & Dvds

Jean Renoir Triple DVD Box Set 4/5 Warner Home Video, Cert PG, DVD ((pounds) 29.99) Three classic 1930s films from the great director Jean Renoir make up this beautifully-presented collection which is lacking only in the special features department. The earliest of these is Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1936), a talky movie (with a Jacques Prevert script), set in a run-down publishing house, about working-class solidarity.

Edinburgh

WHat they sold for AYR Brae of Auchendrane Offers over: (pounds) 1m Sold for: (pounds) 1.35m What you got: Compact residential estate with fully restored B-listed eighteenth-century house. Comes with its own salmon river, stabling, estate buildings and guest cottage.

Face of Next Week

Hard Graft to Ensure Skiver's Mission to Do Nothing

In the foot-shuffling world of the malingerer, Matthew Parris is very obviously a non-starter. Seen from another angle, of course, non-starting is what malingering is all about. But Parris is too spry, too busy being everywhere as a commentator and political gossip to be taken seriously as someone on the skive. Still, that didn't stop him chairing an entertaining amble round the subject in Off The Page (Radio 4, Friday), when his guests urged the need for better understanding of the condition...

Punks of Publishing; Their Comic Books Have Become Cult Hits - but Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers, Aka Metaphrog, Fear That the Mainstream Could Destroy Everything Their Character, Louis, Stands For. By Abigail Wild

Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers, a comic-book-creating married couple known as Metaphrog, clearly haven't spent a lot of time working out how they would cope if their small Glasgow-based operation went Spider-Man-sized. They are in their cluttered, vinyl- packed living room, discussing merchandise. Marrs fetches a stone plaster statuette of Louis, the thoughtful, sensitive, baby-faced protagonist of their cult-hit comic books. He's a lovely little thing - pudgy arms, round tummy, two hug-me ey...

Does Political Violence Work?

Party conferences are not what they were, and they were never much. As in America, the broadcasters have lost interest in orchestrated rallies that would not seem out of place in North Korea, in which difficult issues are shunted from the agenda, at which the ovations are led by party hacks who treat the dear leader much as others treat a favourite boy band. If it's a bad liver and morbid depression you want, try Blackpool when Labour is in town. The last time I volunteered for the experience...

Tales for New Hormones; Melvyn Burgess's Novel Doing It Did Not Do It for His Critics. He Tells Keith Bruce Why He Braved the Dodgy Subject of the Young Male Libido

THE movie that brought Melvyn Burgess to Scotland - to participate in one of the forums in the programme of Discovery, the new festival of films for children and young people - contains only one hint of the works that have brought him notoriety. An Angel for May is a charming story, adapted from one of his books for younger readers, and director Harley Cokeliss's work is reminscent of the back catalogue of the Children's Film Foundation. The angelic Tom is having trouble at home where dad has...