Agnes Owens Literary Estate
@agnesowenslitest.bsky.social
Agnes Owens Literary Estate Executor: John Crosbie. Agnes Owens Literary Estate Literary Agent: Jenny Brown Associates @jennybrownagency.bsky.social
Lemme hear you say B! (B!) O! (O!) O! (O!) Look, you get the gist
The final three Agnes Owens reissues are out now from Polygon @birlinn.bsky.social Featuring introductions by Jenni Fagan, William Letford & Chitra Ramaswamy. Available now via our online shop.
Thing I love about Agnes Owens is you get pages like the first one which is darkly hilarious. And then pages like the second which communicates so viscerally the panic bordering on madness you experience when you are exhausted with a newborn.
Starting 31 Aug, BBC Radio 4: A WORKING MOTHER, by Agnes Owens (1926–2014) Ten years after WW2, our unreliable narrator Betty – arch, witty, clever – is married with children & feels trapped. While her husband, Adam, drinks and complains, Betty plots her escape… 💙📚 www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - A Working Mother by Agnes Owens
Ten years after the Second World War, Betty craves freedom from domestic responsibility.
bbc.co.uk
Acknowledging Agnes Owens: a celebration of her writing & legacy 24 Sep, Glasgow – free Launch event for the Byres Road Book Festival, in collaboration with the @aowensarchive.bsky.social – with Dani Garavelli, Kirstin Innes, William Letford, & Chitra Ramaswamy www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/acknowledg...
Acknowledging Agnes Owens: a celebration of her writing and legacy
Join us at the Byres Road Book Festival for a special launch evening, presented in collaboration with the Agnes Owens Archive.
eventbrite.co.uk
Excellent recommendation by @jacquiwine.bsky.social about a Scottish bricklayer with no future outside of booze. It reads like a book of short stories, some quite funny, but steadily, subtly grows into something more. Definitely reading more Owens soon. Willy Vlautin fans, it’s worth a look.
They both continued on, Agnes now pulling the pram as it was impossible to push and Sam carrying the sleeping baby in his arms. Scoraig eventually came into view, sitting alongside the minch. The expanse of the North Atlantic Ocean beyond and Stornoway could seen hazily in the distance.
A Working Mother The latest Scots Whay Hae! podcast speaks to John Crosbie, the son of Agnes Owens (1926–2014). They discuss the new editions of Owens’ novels, critical acclaim versus commercial success, Owens’ legacy, the Agnes Owens Archive, & more 💙📚 www.scotswhayhae.com/post/this-wo...
A Working Mother: The Scots Whay Hae! Podcast Talks To John Crosbie...
For the latest Scots Whay Hae! podcast we spoke to John Crosbie, the son of one of Ali's favourite writers, Agnes Owens whose centenary is being marked in a number of ways, including a handsome set o...
scotswhayhae.com
Another "books I've read this year" update. The Scottish bias continues, and this one was excellent.
Issue #61 of our newsletter is out now, ft. John Blanche, Andrew & Steven, the editors, Time Ships, Future Shocks, Agnes Owens, Vince Staples, Alice Oswald and more! mindless-ones.ghost.io/do-your-pare...
This just in! Extreme gratitude to @drlauravarnam.bsky.social for almost half of them and to @thehemicane.bsky.social for Sugar Run!
Thank you @jacquiwine.bsky.social for reviewing Agnes Owens' A Working Mother and so getting me to read this strange, sad little story (but also very deadpan funny)
I’m reading through these newly republished Agnes Owens novellas. She’s a great writer: dark, comic wit and social observation. And gorgeous Joan Eardley paintings on the covers. More info in this Observer article : observer.co.uk/culture/book...
“In contemporary reviews she was likened to Muriel Spark and Beryl Bainbridge: her books thrive on the friction between comedy and sadness.” @john-self.bsky.social on the working-class genius of Agnes Owens (1926–2014) 💙📚 observer.co.uk/culture/book...
The working-class genius of Agnes Owens | The Observer
The Scottish author’s darkly comic novels – written between shifts as a typist and cleaner – are being rediscovered 100 years after her birth
observer.co.uk
To celebrate her centenary, Polygon is publishing new editions of Agnes Owens’ books with introductions from contemporary Scottish writers. 4 are released this month: A Working Mother; For the Love of Willie; Like Birds in the Wilderness; & Gentlemen of the West 💙📚 birlinn.co.uk/contributor/...
Agnes Owens: Out of the Margins Agnes Owens (1926–2014) was born 100 years ago #OTD, 24 May. This short film presents Owens as a writer shaped by working-class life, whose fiction exposed power, resisted sentimentality, & centred overlooked voices. A 🎂🧵 💙📚 1/7 www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkYR...
Agnes Owens: Out of the Margins
YouTube video by Alasdair Gray Archive
youtube.com
My 21st stop on the indie bookstore tour was @bigglestones.bsky.social Glasgow where bookseller Ian chose Agnes Owens’ For the Love of Willie as a favourite recommended read (am currently reading it and it’s class) #indiebooksellers #saintsandwarriors
Many, many years ago Agnes Owens taught me on the first ever Arvon course I attended. I was sick all week because I was so nervous ..... She was so warm and generous and encouraging. I love her work and I owe her for her kindness to me at that time.
John Self@john-self.bsky.social · 5mo agoIt’s Agnes Owens’s centenary on Sunday. I was thrilled to be able to write about her life and her bitterly funny books for @theobserveruk.bsky.social, talking to her family, her first readers (“What the fuck is this?!”), her first publisher, and fans like Douglas Stuart:
To celebrate her centenary, Birlinn is publishing new editions of Agnes Owens’ books with introductions from contemporary Scottish writers. Four are released this month: A Working Mother; For the Love of Willie; Like Birds in the Wilderness; & Gentlemen of the West 💙📚 birlinn.co.uk/contributor/...
Agnes Owens | Birlinn Ltd - Independent Scottish Publisher - buy books online
birlinn.co.uk
Very much looking forward to giving this talk on Agnes Owens' 100th birthday! 🎂🥳 Get your free tickets and come along. ✨️
Association for Scottish Literature@asls.org.uk · 5mo agoThe Agnes Owens Archive – Centenary Talk 24 May, Glasgow – free On the 100th birthday of Agnes Owens, @sgsah.bsky.social-funded PhD researcher @laurzzs.bsky.social will discuss the development of the new Agnes Owens Archive, housed at @agrayarchive.bsky.social www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/the-...
"In A Working Mother, Owens transforms difficulties from her own life into a glorious work of art in which nothing is quite what it seems." My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of all the Agnes Owens' books reissued by Polygon so far to mark her centenary. www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...
This brilliant Scottish author has been forgotten for far too long - that changes now
AGNES Owens famously rejected the notion of herself as a feminist author. What she meant by that, I think, is that - while her depiction of poverty…
heraldscotland.com
Hey @backlisted.bsky.social not sure if Agnes Owens has crossed your path but damn, she’s good
Kenny@kennypieper.bsky.social · 5mo agoCouldn't resist these.
“She’s writing stories about smaller areas in the West Coast, that are not a major city – urban, rural, borderland kind of spaces, and the particular desperations of those lives” —Kirstin Innes & Hayley-Jane Dawson on the life & work of Agnes Owens 💙📚 www.greatergovanhill.com/latest/in-co...
In conversation on writing, class, Scots and Agnes Owens — Greater Govanhill
With the release of Agnes Owens’ ‘A Working Mother’ today, introduced by novelist Kirstin Innes, we’re looking back to our recent Scots issue and our conversation with Kirsten & artist Hayley-Jane...
greatergovanhill.com
To celebrate her century year, Polygon is publishing new editions of Agnes Owens’ books with specially commissioned introductions from contemporary Scottish writers. Four are released this month – including A Working Mother, published yesterday 💙📚 birlinn.co.uk/product/a-wo...
A Working Mother | Birlinn Ltd - Independent Scottish Publisher - buy books online
A Working Mother is a perfectly crafted novel that will enthral, entertain and surprise in equal measure. Our unreliable narrator, Betty – arch, witty, clever – is married with children and feels trap...
birlinn.co.uk