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Hugh MacDonald

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As seen in: Daily Mail, The Times, The Herald (Scotland), The Chronicle Herald, The National (Scotland), The Glasgow Times, The Connexion (France), Literary Review, The Chronicle-Journal, Shakespeare Magazine
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Articles by Hugh MacDonald

Hugh MacDonald: Mugdock reservoir was as busy as Sauchiehall Street but with more shops open

Feb 05, 2022  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THERE is, one suspects, a department in some newspapers that specialises in the creation of crises. These are invariably, but not exclusively, of the manufactured variety. The most risible of this category occurred recently when a London newspaper pointed out the crisis of the shortage of nannies in the capital. Those taking their paseo in Saracen Street could talk of little else. There is always the traditional crisis staple in education, too.
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Hugh MacDonald: Why does Scots cause some folk to explode in bile and contempt?

Jan 29, 2022  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
OUT of the mouth of babes. Tess, Lego expert, artist extraordinaire, reader and writer, also moonlights – with her sister, Grace, and cousin, Arran – as the light of my life. Her appointment diary is as packed as most five-year-olds but she grants me an audience on certain schooldays. These are deeply educational for me. She is a force of nature, best summarised with recourse to the terms of the shipping forecast with the most apt description being hurricane force 12 with occasional lulls.
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Hugh MacDonald: What connects Boris Johnson, Prince Andrew and Novak Djokovic?

Jan 22, 2022  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
ONE listens. One learns. Many years ago I sat having my lunch with monks at Pluscarden Abbey. The routine was simple. There was a prayer of thanksgiving, guests were served their food first, and one of the monks took to the lectern to read something “light”. This category, in monastic terms, does not include the works of PG Wodehouse or the memoirs of Alan Partridge but, rather, the biography of a businessman or politician.
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Hugh MacDonald: We all need to snatch a cup of tea and a scone from the jaws of adversity

Jan 15, 2022  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THERE is time for steely resilience. There is a moment when only bravery in the face of devastating disappointment is enough to sustain the will to live. I summoned both when the Scottish Ballet performance of the Nutcracker was cancelled because of the Great Miasma. I then booked a high tea. I like to think my Possil forebears would be proud.
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English comedy? It was all vicars, trousers falling down and the boss coming for dinner, says Hugh MacDonald

Jan 08, 2022  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THERE is a resolutely tough attitude held by Glaswegians towards comedians. Or should I say wielded. It runs thus. Laugh? Make me. The bar is set high for any notion of showing a comic that their art is appreciated. Laughter should be rationed and only doled out to the accomplished. In my case, this was learned in my early years.
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A guid Scots New Year: 'It started with Hogmanay. Nobody knew when it would end'. By Hugh MacDonald

Jan 01, 2022  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
IT was the biggest day of the year. Every year. It was such a big day that it lapped against the constraints of time, overspilling into what seemed a week, maybe more. It started with Hogmanay. Nobody really knew when it would end. The foundation stones were set in place with a workmanlike efficiency. The house was cleaned from top to bottom. Emergency repairs were undertaken. My father was a spark to his trade so electrical devices were, frankly, lethal.
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Rupert the Bear and an enduring passion for books forged in a Glasgow childhood, by Hugh MacDonald

Dec 18, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THIS ghost of Christmas past still prompts a shiver. It is a story of reading. It is not about gathering around a log fire to read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Our gatherings around the electric fire were exclusively on the occasion of dressing for school. It was cold. It was cramped. They resulted in the sort of bloodshed that would have caused Genghis Khan to wince. No, this is the tale of a book.
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Hugh MacDonald: As the World Cup looms, what's the truth about life in Qatar?

Dec 08, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
IT is two years since I last was in Qatar. The journey from the airport into central Doha on Sunday offered visible proof that much had changed in the country in the interim. The roads that will transport fans to matches in next year’s World Cup are all but completed. The stunning, high-rise skyline reflects on stadiums already hosting an international tournament in the shape of the FIFA Arab Cup. This correspondent has changed, too.
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Hugh MacDonald: The lesson of life is that it always changes. I need to consider and proceed

Dec 05, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THE columnists’ cabal has several rules. They include always hitting the word count, never discussing two ideas when one is more than enough, and never, ever going in early on any discussion/meditation on an anniversary or festive date. It’s a sort of antipathy towards premature excitation.
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Hugh MacDonald: I've started falling so often I'll soon have a loyalty card at the local A&E

Nov 27, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
MY new hobby is falling. I say new, but apparently I was an adept faller as a toddler but now have taken it up again in my pensionable years. Oh, what larks! There are three disciplines to my new pastime. The first is a sort of homage to the Winter Olympics which involves falling on ice. One spectacular effort four years ago produced a perfect triple salchow and an imperfect arm. Indeed, the arm shot out at an angle that required the intervention of a bone surgeon and a professor of geometry.
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Hugh MacDonald: We are here for only a brief time...we better make the most of it

Nov 20, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
BACK on the road again. My foray to London the other week was so successful (it’s a low bar, involving returning home largely unscathed) that last week it was Germany for fitba’ and kulcher. Who would have thought that the requirement to have a passport, a PDF of a passenger locator form and a scannable code of a Covid vaccination would not be the first priority of a group of lads returning from a stag weekend? They seemed destined to perdition. Or at least to the compassion of a low-cost airline.
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Obituary: Russell Steele, journalist renowned for his peerless gifts and generosity of spirit

Nov 09, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
RUSSELL (Rusty) Steele, who has died aged 75, was a character perfectly suited to the drama that was Scottish newspapers in the late 20th century and early 21st century. He had substantial, peerless journalistic gifts and a boundless, bountiful personality. He instantly recognised a story but could wrap it beautifully on a double-page spread or in a pull-out. He had an intuitive ability, too, to know how a tale must be told.
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Poppies and beyond: We are all blessed by remembrance for those we have lost, by Hugh MacDonald

Nov 06, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
IT is the falling leaves rather than the gradual proliferation of poppies in paper, steel or plastic that reminds me that this is the season of remembrance. I have no problem wearing a poppy and do so. I have no problem with people not wearing a poppy. Remembrance, though, has several layers for me. This is the season where I lost parents. This year is a time when I have lost two friends. The military aspect also nags my thoughts.
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What's happened to the traditional Scottish Halloween, wonders Hugh MacDonald

Oct 30, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
Hugh MacDonald: What's happened to the traditional Scottish Halloween? Menu Politics By Hugh MacDonald Columnist PREMIUM Tweedie Memorial Boys Club hold their Halloween party at the West Port, 1956 Most read Loading... Most popular Loading...
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Walter Smith: The sparky who never forgot life takes place off the pitch - Hugh MacDonald

Oct 26, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Glasgow Times
THE coaching and managerial career of Walter Smith drips with honours. The best testament to his character, though. Is that he never strayed far from being the working-class boy from Carmyle. This may seem unduly sentimental but it is true. Smith was a profound figure, with extraordinary depths. He defied stereotypes. He could be painted as the stern, father figure with the forbidding stare. He was also a gentleman of genuine course.
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Walter Smith: The sparky who never forgot life takes place off the pitch - Hugh MacDonald

Oct 26, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THE coaching and managerial career of Walter Smith drips with honours. The best testament to his character, though. Is that he never strayed far from being the working-class boy from Carmyle. This may seem unduly sentimental but it is true. Smith was a profound figure, with extraordinary depths. He defied stereotypes. He could be painted as the stern, father figure with the forbidding stare. He was also a gentleman of genuine course.
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Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout: 'Wondrous, wise and occasionally devastating', writes reviewer Hugh MacDonald

Oct 24, 2021  | 
By Elizabeth Strout, Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
Oh William! Elizabeth Strout Viking £14.99 Review by Hugh MacDonald Why do so few men read books by women? The question is not mine but a national newspaper’s, prompted by research, published in the Guardian, that suggested male readers were unlikely to pick up a book by a female author. For example, only 21% of Margaret Atwood’s readership is male.
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Hugh MacDonald: My despair at chatting, eating and sitting on phones at the cinema

Oct 23, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THE pictures were always a refuge for me. This is strange, given my introduction to the silver screen which had all the subtlety and serenity of Mike Tyson with a grievance. The first visits were to the State in Shettleston for the ‘minors’. These were occasions of gratuitous violence that obviously influenced Quentin Tarantino. The fare was cartoon shorts with the odd, grainy serial. It mattered little.
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Hugh MacDonald: My fury at chatting, eating and sitting on phones at the cinema

Oct 23, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THE pictures were always a refuge for me. This is strange, given my introduction to the silver screen which had all the subtlety and serenity of Mike Tyson with a grievance. The first visits were to the State in Shettleston for the ‘minors’. These were occasions of gratuitous violence that obviously influenced Quentin Tarantino. The fare was cartoon shorts with the odd, grainy serial. It mattered little.
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Hugh MacDonald: Could the Scottish football team boost support for independence?

Oct 16, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
IT is difficult to stifle a laugh when the innocent protest that politics and sport should not mix. It is as if there is a belief that sport exists outside the grubby world of politics and should be kept safe from its malign influence. The truth, of course, is that everything is politics. Even, sometimes particularly, 22 players chasing an inflated sphere. Consider this: when does one hear a condemnation of the excesses of capitalism? Rarely about hedge fund managers, regularly about footballers.
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Hugh MacDonald: The new normal is the same as the old normal - with an occasional mask - and we can't resist it

Oct 09, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THE old normal is back. It announced its return to this old abnormality by the beeping of an alarm clock, the roar of a jet engine and the immersion into rush-hour London. The new normal is gone, if only for the moment. The new normal was Zoom calls, largely empty stadiums and restricted travel. Last week I was back on the tools. The early flight to London, so red eye it virtually constitutes impetigo. A schlep to a stadium and a match in front of a healthy crowd.
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WG Sebald was a brooding genius fuelled by passion: Hugh MacDonald reviews Speak Silence

Oct 04, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
Bloomsbury, £30 Review by Hugh MacDonald QUIET, brooding, depressive, WG Sebald was a writer who was both fuelled by passion and created it. He was, almost incidentally, a genius. His work is so extraordinary that bookshops did not know where to place his books. Should they be in non-fiction, travel or fiction? The answer, of course, is fiction.
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Hugh MacDonald: Despite humanity's brilliance, we're still just cavemen - and that may doom us all

Oct 02, 2021  | 
By Hugh MacDonald
 |  The Herald (Scotland)
THE trajectory of history rises towards a better way of living, so a strand of historical theory insists and so our innate optimism hopes. Lately, I have had my doubts. It is not difficult to find evidence of a civilisation in some peril. The instances of the effects of global warming have been dramatic and all too visible. Rising tide waters, sweeping forest fires and mud slides pepper the news. These have prompted no immediate change.
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