Alasdair Gray

(born December 1934 - ) - Riddrie, Glasgow

Alasdair Gray is one of the great figures of contemporary Scottish writing. Born in Riddrie, Glasgow in 1934, he went to Whitehill Senior Secondary school in the city before studying Design & Mural Painting at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1950s. Between 1958 and 1962 he taught Art at schools in Glasgow and Lanarkshire, and painted murals on a number of churches and other buildings in the city.

Gray then became a stage painter for a Glasgow theatre, and in 1963 he submitted the first book of his novel Lanark to a literary agent. It was rejected. Gray continued to paint and write playscripts for stage, TV and radio. Between 1977 and 1979, Gray was a Writer in Residence at the University of Glasgow.

Alasdair Gray's novel Lanark was finally published in 1981 by Edinburgh's Canongate Books, then a very small company who accepted Gray's offer to design the cover of the book to save money. The novel, a semi-autobiographical mix of science fiction, fantasy and politics, won the David Niven and Saltire Society Awards. Canongate also won a Scottish Arts Council award for the book's design. After the success of Lanark, Gray become a full-time writer, artist and illustrator. As well as illustrating his own works, and painting murals, he has also designed covers for Chapman literary magazine. A well known socialist, Gray has campaigned for Scottish independence and against nuclear weapons.

In 1992 he married his second wife, Morag McAlpine, and the following year won the Whitbread Novel Award for Poor Things. In 2001 Gray became joint professor of Creative Writing at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, alongside fellow writers Tom Leonard and James Kelman.

The writer Rodge Glass, who had been working as Gray's secretary, wrote a biography of Gray in 2008. In 2011, Gray initially rejected a Saltire Society Awward for his auto-biographical A Life in Pictures, though he later accepted the prize.

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  1982, Janine
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Canongate
  A book about power and powerlessness, men and women, masters and servants, small countries and big countries and an exploration of the politics of pornography. A portrait of male need and inadequacy as explored via the lonely sexual fantasies of Jock McLeish, failed husband, lover and businessman.
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  Collected Verse
  Alasdair Gray - Hardback - Two Ravens
  This title brings together poems from Alasdair Gray's published volumes, along with new and previously unpublished poetry.
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  £25.50
  Every Short Story By Alasdair Gray, 1952-2012
  Alasdair Gray - Hardback - Canongate
  This title collects 64 short tales from Gray's earlier books along with ten new stories, with illustrations and information to amuse curious readers.
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  A Gray Play Book: Of Long And Short Plays For Stage ... And Excerpts From The Pictorial Storyboard Of The Novel Lanark
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Luath
  This collection brings together some of Alasdair Gray's best plays, including the unabridged scripts of four of his most famous dramas: 'The Fall of Kelvin Walker', 'Mavis Belfridge', 'McGrotty and Ludmilla' and 'Working Legs'.
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  A History Maker
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Canongate
  Set in the Ettrick Forest in the 23rd century, this is a tale of Border warfare. It tell of Wat Dryhope, son of the Ettrick chief, who is unhappy about his clan's violent and permissive lifestyle.
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  Lanark: A Life In Four Books
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Canongate
  This novel is a work of extraordinary imagination and wide range. Its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind's inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying.
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  Lanark: A Life In Four Books
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Canongate
  This novel is a work of extraordinary imagination and wide range. Its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind's inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying.
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  £26.25
  A Life In Pictures
  Alasdair Gray - Hardback - Canongate
  Alasdair Gray is known throughout Europe and beyond for his writing, but he is also a highly regarded artist who is responsible for many murals, portraits, paintings and posters. In this autobiography he gathers together the paintings that have mattered most to him over the years, and weaves the story of his life through them.
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  Old Men In Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Bloomsbury
  'Old Men in Love' constitutes the posthumous papers of a recondite - yet venal - retired Glaswegian schoolmaster, named John Tunnock.
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  Ten Tales Tall & True: Social Realism, Sexual Comedy, Science Fiction, Satire
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Bloomsbury
  A lecturer cornered in an embarrassing ménage à trois, a Glaswegian Cinderella and an extremely talkative dentist all feature in this collection of tales, that bring together social realism, sexual comedy, science fiction and satire.
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  Unlikely Stories, Mostly
  Alasdair Gray - Paperback - Canongate
  Alasdair Gray's first book of short stories is a masterful collection that further established him as one of Scotland's most original writers. This edition marks the first appearance by Gray in the Canongate Classics list.

Bibliography

• Lanark - 1981
• Unlikely Stories, Mostly - 1983
• 1982, Janine - 1984
• The Fall of Kelvin Walker: A Fable of the Sixties (drama) - 1985
• Old Negatives: Four Verse Sequences - 1989
• McGrotty and Ludmilla - 1990
• Something Leather - 1990
• Poor Things - 1992
• Why Scots Should Rule Scotland - 1992
• Ten Tales Tall and True - 1993
• A History Maker - 1994
• Mavis Belfrage - 1996
• Working Legs (drama) - 1997
• Sixteen Occasional Poems - 2000
• The Ends of Our Tethers: 13 Sorry Stories - 2003
• Old Men in Love - 2007
• Fleck - 2008
• A Gray Play Book - 2009
• A Life in Pictures - 2010
• Collected Verse - 2010
• Every Short Story by Alasdair Gray, 1952-2012 - 2012