Children of the Dead End

Description

Based on personal memories of his life in Ireland and Scotland in the early 1900s, this was Patrick MacGill's first novel. It tells the story of Dermod Flynn an independent and feisty youth who earns a meagre living as an itinerant farm hand in Donegal and County Tyrone before coming to Scotland with a potato-picking squad. After living on the road, labouring and navvying, Dermod finds work on the hydro-electric scheme at Kinlochleven -an extraordinarily brutal and unforgiving environment where hundreds died on one of the biggest engineering projects of its time. Against this background, Dermod reads voraciously, begins to discover his talent as a writer and is eventually lured to Fleet Street, where he briefly becomes a journalist. Peopled with extraordinary characters, Children of the Dead End is a gritty and uncompromising expose of the near slavery endured by the poor in Scotland and Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century. 'A superb account of its times' - Irish Times 'Raw, lyrical, angry, Children of the Dead End still retains its affecting power' - Nick Brooks, The List

Patrick MacGill, 'the Navvy Poet' was born in Donegal in 1889 and died in Florida in 1963. He wrote a number of bestselling books (many of which are semi-autobiographical), including, Moleskin Joe, The Rat-pit and The Great Push, as well as a number of poetry collections. Patrick Baker has worked in the publishing industry for many years and is the author of The Cairngorms: A Secret History (Birlinn, 2014) and the acclaimed bestseller The Unremembered Places: Exploring Scotland's Wild Histories (Birlinn, 2020).

'An evocative read about working class life.. should be on every school's reading list' * Scottish Field * 'A superb account of its times' * Irish Times * 'Raw, lyrical, angry, Children of the Dead End still retains its affecting power' -- Nick Brooks * The List * 'This beautifully written book is a rare and important work' -- Hollie Bruce * Dundee Courier *