Of Me and Others: 1952-2019

Description

In this frank, playful and typically unorthodox collection of essays, Alasdair Gray tells of how his early life experiences influenced his writing, including the creation of those landmarks of literature, Lanark and 1982, Janine. He details the inspirations behind his many acclaimed artworks and murals, and makes clear how his moral, social and political beliefs and his work are inextricably linked. Incisive, funny and fired with passion, Of Me and Others is as much about people, place and politics as it is about Gray's own life in art.

Born in 1934, Alasdair Gray graduated in design and mural painting from Glasgow School of Art. Since 1981, when Lanark was published by Canongate, he has written, designed and illustrated seven novels, several books of short stories, a collection of his stage, radio and TV plays and a book of his visual art, A Life in Pictures. In his own words, 'Alasdair Gray is a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glaswegian pedestrian who has mainly lived by writing and designing books, most of them fiction.'

Unbelievably inventive -- ALI SMITH Gray is a true original, a twentieth-century William Blake * * Observer * * One of the most gifted writers to have put pen to paper in the English language -- IRVINE WELSH An essential portrait of an artist emerging in the second half of the 20th century . . . Gray is an exceptionally generous writer * * Herald * * A great writer, perhaps the greatest living in Britain today -- WILL SELF Alasdair Gray is that rather rare bird among contemporary British writers - a genuine experimentalist -- DAVID LODGE Disarmingly personal . . . Like Gray himself, the book is by turns ebullient, eccentric, generous and shy * * Scotsman * * Gray has a rare ability to convey his thought in writing that is clear, invigorating and, in the very best way, fun. This book is all of those things, and much more besides . . . A thrilling and powerful statement about the value of Scottish art * * The List * * Gray may be regarded as the doyen of Scottish letters, and this publication is a fitting acknowledgement of his status -- Allan Massie * * Scotsman * *