The lass was a bampot, addled, soft in the head.

Had he seen the bampot chasing him about?

All through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a gun-toting bampot.

And Drustan thinks you're a bampot," he murmured, smiling. "

The bampot machine then upped and destroyed itself.

If Socrates had been a shell-suited bampot.

This was 100 percent pure Glaswegian bampot, proven by his instinctive resort to violence at the very sight of a police officer.

Reformed ex-con and general bampot, turned self-aware artist.

Perhaps it was bampot repellent.

The big bampot's deid!

If the signature became common knowledge, then every bampot with a bomb could spread it around to claim second-hand kudos and cloud the picture. '

He was the bampot of the bunch, Mr Guess-who-doesn't-belong.

For all the fun and flourish, the tales of currency meltdown in banana republics and bampot dictatorships sounded a "cautionary note."

As usual, Livvy were willing to give it a go and, on more than a couple of occasions, our big bampot came to the rescue, holding the defence together.

He used to be a small-time crook but he discovered the Big Man in the Big Hoose and started his own bampot Christian pressure group.

Cal-Hab's most prominent Judge was Judge Ed MacBrayne, considered an "utter bampot" by many of his colleagues.

It's not often a job applicant might get away with calling his prospective employers "bamsticks" - a form of the Glaswegian word bampot, which generally means idiot or fool.

These two were modelling the Garngad Winter Collection, following the tradition of bampot couture that stipulated the colder the weather, the fewer layers one must wear outdoors.

None of Brookmyre's other novels have been adapted for television, but his short story Bampot Central was rewritten as a radio play by the author for BBC Radio 3.

Parlabane also stars in the short stories Bampot Central, Place B. and The Last Day of Christmas with the latter serving as a short prelude to Dead Girl Walking.

The Jolly monologues usually contained references to his mysterious wife "Ephesia", and the antics of church organist "Mr. Bampot" - neither of which are seen (but are referred to) in the spin-off specials.

The producers had originally wanted Scottish actor Douglas Henshall to play Parlabane, but they were overruled by ITV's commissioners (Henshall had previously played Parlabane in a radio adaptation of the short story "Bampot Central").

The explorer born 100 years too late, variously described as intrepid and bampot, is now back from his 1,350 mile Antarctic trek, about two-thirds of the weight he was when he started, bushy-bearded, staring of eye, and, as far as we can tell, happy.