This year, ten schools across Glasgow and Renfrewshire are taking part in a project aimed at S3-S6 pupils which addresses a range of topics, from toxic masculinity and misogyny to gang culture and crime. The project has been named Library Young Team and is supported by the Scottish Government School Library Improvement Fund. Over the course of three months, three thought-provoking authors will visit each school to discuss their books and their individual journeys through difficult circumstances and how they are able to reflect on that part of their lives now. At Knightswood Secondary, we’re very lucky to be one of the schools involved in this project.

This week, on March 20th, Knightswood was privileged to have its second author visit with Alan Bissett. Hailing from Falkirk, Alan has become well-known for his unique perspective on Scots dialect writing. His newest book, Lads: A Guide to Consent and Respect is his first non-fiction title. It is aimed at teenaged boys to help them navigate the often fraught world of relationships, misogyny, incel culture, boundaries, and what it means to be a “good man”. As he described it to our group of S3 pupils, “If [I] leave here today and get hit by a bus and die, this is what I’d like to leave as advice for my sons.”

His hour with us proved to be interesting, enriching, and quite often, funny. He’s a brilliant speaker who draws on examples from his own life to really demonstrate the ideas he’s putting forward.

Our next (and final) author event in this series comes in April, so stay tuned for that!