Ever since I attended the launch of the first issue of The Gun in 2004, I'd been fascinated with its weird mix of writers and its public position taking on literary matters in Edinburgh, and as long ago as 2008 I'd spoken to the editor Craig Gibson about doing some kind of collection.
The One O’Clock Gun is a publication like no other; part literary periodical, part leg puller, featuring writers high and low, and it has to be admitted, the quality of the writing is vastly variable too.
What I liked about the One O'Clock Gun however was that it was higher in aspiration than any normal 'literary magazine'; and with novice writers sitting side by side with household names, it was a truly unique mix; and the book reflects that.
The anthology of the OOCG that we published in 2010 celebrates the first four years of the Gun, 2004 to 2008 and is beautifully illustrated with 16 colour plates and Lucy McKenzie’s artwork from the original publication.
Star of the show in the One O'Clock Gun has to be Angus Calder, who in his last years was a great supporter of the broadsheet. What he liked, I believe, was the energy of the paper and its constant and ballsy challenging of the status quo, something fairly thin on the ground these days. Look no further than Angus' great polemic included herein, called 'Aux Armes Citoyens!' in which he states: "If it isn't witty or beautiful, don't bother to read it."
"A literary city is not made up of a few great achievers — it grows from the street upwards, out of a ferment of text, debate and personality. And it is out of just that ferment that the free publication the One O’Clock Gun emerged in the decade known as The Noughties, taking the shape of the old columned broadside."Robert Alan Jamieson
"What I really like about this anthology is that it includes everything that featured in the original editions. That means that the stories, poems and essays vary in terms of style and content, but not dramatically. In fact the standard is remarkably high. When you discover some of the names involved this is unsurprising. Alasdair Gray, Angus Calder, Suhayl Saadi, Rodge Glass, Kevin Williamson and even Robin Cairns are some of the better known writers that can be found between the covers, but there are many names that I knew little of, and some who were completely new to me, and it is their contributions that are perhaps the most interesting. Actually that's not true, it is the balance of contributors which is the real achievement."From a review on Scots Whay Hae! Blog
