Alasdair Gray

(born December 1934 - ) – Riddrie, Glasgow

Alasdair Gray

Trained as a painter at the Glasgow School of Art, Alasdair Gray has been an art-teacher, a muralist, theatrical scene painter, and more recently a playwright, novelist and illustrator. His first novel, Lanark: A Life in Four Books, was published in 1981 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. He illustrates his own books and these images, along with a creative use of typography, give a strong sense of his unique style.
Gray is now Professor of Creative Writing and Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, a position he shares with Tom Leonard and James Kelman.

Key titles

  • Cover scan of 1982, Janine
    1982, Janine
    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.
  • Cover scan of Lanark
    Lanark: A Life In 4 Books
    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.
  • Cover scan of Old Men In Love
    Old Men In Love: John Tunnock's Posthumous Papers
    'Old Men in Love' constitutes the posthumous papers of a recondite - yet venal - retired Glaswegian schoolmaster, named John Tunnock.
  • Cover scan of Old Negatives
    Old Negatives: Four Verse Sequences
    The verses in 'Old Negatives' deal with the same things, omitting politics. They have been written at different times since 1952 and are arranged chronologically to suggest growth. They are negative becuase they describe love mainly by its absences and reverses.
  • Cover scan of Poor Things
    Poor Things: Episodes From The Early Life Of Archibald McCandless M.D. Scottish Public Health Officer
    What strange secret made rich, beautiful, tempestuous Bella Baxter irresistible to the poor Scottish medical student Archie McCandless? Was it her mysterious origin in the home of his monstrous friend Godwin Baxter, the genius whose voice could perforate eardrums?
  • Cover scan of Why Scots Should Rule Scotland
    Why Scots Should Rule Scotland
    New chapters dealing with Scottish education, land owning, and law and the Labour Party bring Gray's argument up to date. This is a more openly political book than the first edition, written to persuade voters that Scottish independence matters.

Bibliography