Glasgow: The Autobiography

Description

Glasgow: The Autobiography tells the story of the fabled, former Second City of the British Empire from its origins as a bucolic village on the rivers Kelvin and Clyde, through the Industrial Revolution to the dawning of the second millennium. Arranged chronologically and introduced by journalist and Glasgowphile Alan Taylor, the book includes extracts from an astonishing array of writers. Some, such as William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Dirk Bogarde and Evelyn Waugh, were visitors and left their vivid impressions as they passed through on. Many others were born and bred Glaswegians who knew the city and its inhabitants - and its secrets - intimately. They come from every walk of life and, in addition to professional writers, include anthropologists and scientists, artists and murderers, housewives and hacks, footballers and comedians, politicians and entrepreneurs, immigrants and locals. Together they present a varied and vivid portrait of one of the world's great cities in all its grime and glory - a place which is at once infuriating, frustrating, inspiring, beguiling, sensational and never, ever dull.

Alan Taylor has been a journalist for over 30 years. He was deputy and managing editor at the Scotsman, and for the last 15 years has been Writer-at-Large for the Sunday Herald. He has contributed to numerous publications, including The TLS, The New Yorker and The Melbourne Age, and edited three acclaimed anthologies - The Assassin's Cloak (2000), The Secret Annexe (2004) and The Country Dairies (2009).

'Alan Taylor deserves praise for his nous and nose ...and has given it laldy' -- Stewart Conn * The TLS * '[Alan Taylor] lays bare the city's glorious contradictions. Glasgow: The Autobiography is his gift to us' -- Kevin McKenna * The National * 'If you know and love Glasgow, you'll love it. If you don't, you'll love it. It's a fine treasure-house - and even Glaswegians may learn something new from it' -- Allan Massie * Scotsman * 'a book with an enduring quality that you feel you will want to return to again and again ... the ideal book for anyone who lives or works in Glasgow, or has ever been to the city, or who has family roots there' * Undiscovered Scotland * 'These collected writings allowed me to dip here and there to uncover one unknown after another about my beloved Glasgow' -- Frank McAveety, Leader, Glasgow City Council