Hieroglyphics and Other Stories

A beautiful collection – charming, witty and touching – these stories give voice to a variety of different characters: from the little girl who wants to look ‘subtle’ for her father’s funeral, a child who has an email pen pal on Jupiter and an old lady who becomes a star through ‘zimmerobics’. Often writing in a vibrant Glaswegian vernacular, Donovan deftly gives her characters authenticity with a searing power, aided and abetted by tender subtlety.

Reviews of Hieroglyphics and Other Stories

* Not since Alan Spence came on the scene has anyone written better about childhood and her richly expressive Scots is neither forced nor fey. A page-turner to make you laugh and cry. — Donny O'Rourke Scotsman * Hieroglyphics conjures up spellbinding stories of childhood and change in voices so vibrant they leave you speechless. — Willy Mally Sunday Herald * Hieroglyphics and Other Stories is Donovan's excellent debut collection … Donovan illuminates exactly the dislocations and intensifications that occur within a relationship, whether between lovers or mother and child. Daily Telegraph