Sep 23rd, 2008 · By 15, Scottish singer-songwriter Amy MacDonald was performing in pubs and open mics in Ireland. Now 21, her album This Is the Life just came out in the U.S. after topping the U.K. charts on the strength of its rich and sometimes dark lyrics.
Aug 16th, 2008 · At 20, the guitarist and songwriter from Glasgow has already sold 1 million copies of her debut album overseas. On the eve of the U.S. release of This Is the Life, MacDonald played a few songs and spoke with Scott Simon.
Jan 3rd, 2008 · George MacDonald Fraser, the British author of the Flashman series, has died. He was 82. Fraser took a character -- a bullying schoolboy -- from the 19th century classic Tom Brown's Schooldays and imagined him as a soldier in the British army. The fictional Flashman became a literary anti-hero, a rascal and a rogue.