Reading Scotland: Ross Sayers with Niamh McKeown, Adventures on the Clockwork Orange

‘Life isnae a fulm. It’s barely even a story. Thur’s nae such thing as gid guys and bad guys, thur’s jist... guys’. Welcome to Daisy’s worldview in Ross Sayers’s ingenious Scots-language novel for young adults, Daisy on the Outer Line. It features the delightfully flawed protagonist Daisy as she comes to terms with the death of a stepfather she’d never felt close to. After making a scene at his funeral and falling out with her mother, Daisy falls asleep on the Glasgow Subway, only to find that when she wakes up, things have radically changed…

As part of the Book Festival’s Reading Scotland project, we commissioned a brand new short film made by Sayers and Edinburgh-based screenwriter and director Niamh McKeown, which premiered at the beginning of this event at the 2021 Festival. Set on Glasgow’s subway, the five-minute piece which features actor Laura Lovemore as Daisy, evokes the spirit of the city’s beloved ‘clockwork orange’ and the mood of the novel, forming the perfect introduction to a discussion about Sayers’ book. The author, director and actor share their creative processes with the Book Festival's own Lewis Camley.