Those of my readers (thank you, Rebecca) who have read A Snowball in hell (2008), Christopher Brookmyre's most recent novel, will know that The Sacred art of stealing is a funnier and perhaps better novel, although the two novels do share several major characters. What did puzzle me was the expression (and today's word) "Alakazamy, stairheid rammy", a favourite incantation of the lead character. According to Sharon White, in her article "The usage of too many metaphors and metonymy can make your paper less effective" published in Easyarticles, stairheid is a metaphor for face to face, and rammy is a violent disturbance or free for all. Or you can go to the source, and look it up the Dictionary of the Scots Language.
Easyarticles is worth looking at too. And yes CW, you definitely do pronounce it with a Scottish accent - a Glasgow accent.
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Stairheed refers to the communal landing in a Glasgow tenement flat.
A 'stairheed rammy' refers to a frank exchange of views, possibly but not always involving fists, foreheads, bottles or bricks, with your neighbour over the noise or mess they or their children have made on the said stairs.
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