13 April,
Fiction / In Conversation / Launch /
Stuart Murdoch: Nobody’s Empire
Sunday, 13 April 2025, 4:30am
The Mick Lally Theatre / €16.00 | €14.00
Book NowBelle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch joins us for a conversation about his debut novel Nobody’s Empire. Set in early 1990s Glasgow, Stephen – music-loving romantic – emerges from a lengthy hospital stay diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, a little-understood disease that has robbed him of any prospects of work, social life or independent living. Finding that he has the ability to write songs, Stephen wakes to the possibility of a spiritual life beyond the everyday and leaves Glasgow in search of a cure in the mythic warmth of California. This book is life-affirming, funny, and heartwarming.
Stuart Murdoch is a Scottish musician, composer, writer, and filmmaker and the lead singer and songwriter for the iconic Glasgow-based band Belle and Sebastian. Since forming in the mid-1990s, the band has released twelve studio albums to high acclaim, including Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister. The band enjoys a faithful worldwide audience, filling such venues as The Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall.
In 2010 his online diaries were collected into his first book, The Celestial Café. In 2012 Murdoch scripted, composed and directed the movie God Help The Girl, a musical coming-of-age drama starring Olly Alexander from Years & Years.
An outspoken advocate for sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Murdoch is also an Ambassador for the Open Medicine Foundation working to promote awareness of ME/CFS and the work being done to cure it.
Since Covid in 2020, Murdoch has lead regular online meditation sessions on the band’s Facebook site, focussing on wellbeing and spirituality. He lives in Glasgow with his filmmaking wife Marisa, and two sons, Denny and Nico.
