Alan Spence

A Wee Bit More Zen sees Alan Spence return with a new collection of haiku and short reflective poems that deepen his engagement with mindfulness, compassion and the art of paying attention. With warmth, humour and quiet insight, Spence captures moments of stillness and surprise in everyday life, inviting readers to slow down and see more clearly. A follow up to the much loved Glasgow Zen, this new collection continues his exploration of impermanence, kindness and small awakenings found in ordinary experience. This book will appeal to readers of contemporary poetry, haiku and short form writing, as well as those interested in mindfulness, Zen practice and reflective non-fiction. It will also attract fans of Glasgow Zen and anyone seeking moments of calm, clarity and gentle insight in everyday life.

Boro playwright Alan Spence is very proud to offer this 2025 reprint on his own book label Theatre is real life, which tells the untold history of the 1980 Steel strike, some forty 45 years after it took place. It is the story of a family, a community and an industry. The play is set in Eston and at the Redcar BSC Complex and like Alan's first play, uses slides to offer both a local and national perspective. The Steel strike lasted 13 weeks, the largest strike in post-war history with the loss of 8.8 million working days. It was the first national stoppage in British steel industry since the General Strike in 1926, The new book is in three parts; Part 1: includes Dont put your kids on the stage... Mrs Worthington, a background of Alan's early attempts at performance and his journey into teaching, as well as asking a key question - Does theatre actually change anything? Where Alan explores key issues and themes on many well plays he has seen. Part 2: the full script of the play, with Part 3: production notes and examination questions related to the play for GCSE, A Level and Performing Arts.

*Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024 Longlist*Lovers of Haiku, Zen and Japan will find this novel truly inspiring! An extraordinary man at a crucial time and place." In Mister Timeless Blyth, writer Alan Spence has created a fascinating (auto) biography, convincingly in R. H. Blyth's own voice. In it, he has conveyed the haiku scholar's love of music, eastern and western literature, Zen Buddhism, and sly contradictions. Blyth's profound understanding of haiku and his self-deprecating humor permeate every page. Throughout this work, Mr. Spence has included an interesting constellation of characters who influenced Blyth on what he considered his own karmic path, giving us an entirely new perspective of his life and personal development. I could not put the book down." — William Scott Wilson, author of The Life and Zen Haiku Poetry of Santoka TanedaImprisoned during World War I as a conscientious objector and interned during World War II as an enemy alien, Reginald Horace Blyth was a poet, a scholar, a musician, a linguist and a student of Zen who ultimately became teacher to an emporer. His pivitol works were published in Japan even during his internment. Blyth ultimately became the key link and mediator between the Imperial Household and the occupying American forces, whom many credit with saving Japan from chaos after the war. His fingerprints are everywhere today in the study of Zen, Haiku and Japanese culture, and his work has influenced some of the most important writers of the 20th century— including Huxley, Oshi, Aiken, Watts, Salinger, Kerouac, Ginsberg and others. He was, in many ways, a man who changed the world! Mister Timeless Blyth is his story. Written in the form of an autobiographical novel filled with Zen and poetry, this book recounts a life of hard work, books and music, of spiritual questing, and of learning to be at peace with one's self and one's choices. It celebrates a man who built bridge between East and West for the greater part of his lifetime. Through it, we understand someone who moved with a sense of purpose, warmth and humor and left a mark that was very distinct indeed.

A selection of commissioned work and other poems written during Alan Spence’s time as the Edinburgh Makar. These poems celebrate Scotland, Scottishness and the events of 2017- 2021. The book is illustrated with stunning artwork by Victoria Crowe, Alison Watt, Rose Strang, David Williams and Joyce Gunn Cairns.

A classic of short fiction, Alan Spence's celebrated debut collection, first published in 1977, brings Glasgow to vibrant life and captures the spirit of the city as it teetered on the brink of change. From childhood Christmases in small tenement flats and games played on scrubland, to Orange Walks on bright Saturday afternoons and Thursday nights in dark, pulsing dancehalls, these interlinked stories vividly evoke the city and its inhabitants - young and old, Catholic and Protestant, hopeful and disillusioned.

On the side of a mountain, in eighteenth century Japan, sits a man in perfect stillness as the summit erupts, spitting fire and molten rock onto the land around him. The man is Hakuin. He will become the world's most famous teacher of zen. This is not the first time he has seen hell. Hakuin's quest for truth will call on him to defy his father, to face death, to find love and to lose it. He will ask, what is the sound of one hand clapping? And he will master his greatest fear. Night Boat is the story of his astonishing life.

Exam Board: SQALevel: National 5Subject: EnglishFirst Teaching: September 2015First Exam: June 2016Sailmaker Plus offers the full text of the widely popular drama text, Sailmaker, by award-winning writer Alan Spence, which is a set text for National 5 English. It also provides an introduction by the author outlining his motives in writing it, and a wide range of background material by Jane Cooper, offering a historical perspective and detailed support for students who wish to write about the play in literary contexts, especially for examination purposes. Although suitable for a broad range of students, the play is likely to be particularly suitable for study at National 5 English.

The 3 Estaites is - by common consent - Scotland's greatest play. First performed in Cupar, Fife in June 1552, it is the earliest Scottish play to have survived. Full of broad humour and pantomime-like farce, it also deals with dangerous topical issues, hitting out at corruption and hypocrisy in the ruling establishment, denouncing the oppression of the poor and calling for social "reformation". A young king is rescued from idle sexual dalliance and false counsels by Divine Correction and they preside over a Parliament summoned to enact just laws, where basic Christian tenets and values are affirmed - but Folly has the last word. In 2000 The 3 Estaites gained a fresh resonance when it celebrated both the Millennium and the rebirth of Scotland's Parliament by returning to Cupar for the first time in nearly four and a half centuries. This contemporary Scots version by the leading poet and playwright Alan Spence retains the structure and spirit of Lindsay's script while giving his language a new lease of life. The play's topical allusions have been updated brilliantly, but Lindsay's generous spirit and enormous sense of fun have been preserved. This is a national drama, expressing a comprehensive perspective of what Scotland is and what it might be - a land of justice, fellow-feeling and laughter.

A superb new collection of haiku and other short poetic forms on the theme of Glasgow - its people, landscape, culture. As always, Spence is uniquely illuminating, witty and delightful. Incorporating some of the poems which appeared decades ago in the much sought-after collection of the same title, Glasgow Zen includes mostly new material from this highly popular and exquisite poet.