Murdo Macdonald, on Edinburgh Review (1984-2014) and Common Sense (1987-1999)
This was a highly stimulating conversation on the student publishing scene at the University of Edinburgh in the 1980s, in which the relaunched Edinburgh Review and Common Sense both emerged, alongside the tremendous achievements of Polygon Press as a literary and academic publisher.
Professor Murdo Macdonald is our guide to the rich intellectual and social connections of this world, with the Edinburgh University Students Publication Board at its centre. Some key figures include Peter Kravitz, Jenny Turner, Richard Gunn and Duncan Mclean, and through them we encounter a very wide range of writers, thinkers, designers and artists — too many to name here, though you can gain a sense of this scene via Kravitz’s introduction to the Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Literature (1998), courtesy of Janice Galloway’s website.
Interviewers: Alex Thomson and Scott Hames. The introduction to our conversation cites Linda Gunn and Alistair McCleery’s article ‘Wasps in A Jam Jar: Scottish literary magazines and political culture 1979–1999’, which you can access via the network’s informal bibliography.