Darren McGarvey has spoken of how literary titans JK Rowling and Irvine Welsh helped him to establish himself as an author.
Speaking exclusively to The Herald's Dani Garavelli, he explained how the backing he received from the creators of Harry Potter and Trainspotting inspired his new Common People event.
The rapper-turned-author is putting on the show at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, which will see two successful people, mostly from marginalised backgrounds, chat to him, each other and the audience about their experiences.
McGarvey has opted to pair someone at the peak of their career with someone up-and-coming, and the format is no coincidence.
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He told The Herald: "I had a lot of help from established people.
"My first book was supported by JK Rowling and Irvine Welsh and that made a load of difference in terms of legitimising me in the eyes of people who had never heard of me or who had heard of me and thought: ‘Is he not just some rapper guy?’.
"You have to have the ability to take advantage of opportunity, but I know within myself you don’t get from where I was to where I am without help along the way, so I always knew when I had the time and the resources and the cultural capital to take a bit of a gamble, that’s the way I wanted to channel them.”
The show – under the banner of his Common People podcast series – will see comic book legend Grant Morrison paired with Etienne Kubwabo, the creator of Scotland's first black superhero.
Other established interviewees include Irvine Welsh, Newcastle-born YouTube phenomenon Paul Tweddle, whose channel Heavy Spoilers focuses on TV, cinema and video games, and Kimberley Wilson, whose book Unprocessed exposed the links between processed food and poor mental health.
It will run every night from August 12-19 at The Stand’s New Town Theatre on George Street
Read Darren McGarvey's full interview with Dani Garavelli here.
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