Product Description

'Alasdair Gray was not always the rapidly ageing, fat Glasgow pedestrian he likes to describe on the inside leaf of his books. There was once a time when he was young. A time when he was really rather thin. Many years when he went unpublished and unrecognised. This book aims to document, as faithfully as possible, that journey from son of a box-maker, encouraged to paint, write and do whatever made him feel good, to septuagenarian "little grey deity" (as Will Self has called him). For the first time in his life, Alasdair claims to be completely satisfied and well-paid (he lived in debt until 1990), and now lives a settled, happy day-to-day existence with Morag, painting his mural at the Oran Mor arts centre five minutes walk from his home most days, while (at the time of writing) taking occasional periods off for writing several books. Aside from work, Gray's pleasures include daytime whisky, giving money away, reading books by people he doesn't have to meet and "having my way". This book will look in depth at the people, events, books, paintings, plays, poems and circumstances that conspired to make the man as he is today.' RODGE GLASS Suiting form to subject, Rodge Glass has brought the inventive techniques of Gray's fiction to bear on the biographer's role. Mixing a chronological narrative of his subject's life (at the rate of one chapter per decade) with his own diaries of meeting, getting to know and working with the artist, writer and campaigner, narrative and diaries eventually dovetail in a riotous final chapter on the publication of Alasdair Gray's latest novel, Old Men in Love, in October 2007.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #306648 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-08
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
`Glass is Gray's perfect biographer ... the book is inevitably, and not at all unpleasantly, suffused with a general tone of slight pleasantness' --Guardian

Review
`His good-natured biography adopts and adapts the Boswellian template to suit himself and his kenspeckle subject: the business of biography is as much the theme as Gray himself'

About the Author
Rodge Glass is now a novelist (No Fireworks and Hope for Newborns, Faber, 2005 and 2008), but wasn't when he first encountered Gray in a Glasgow pub in 1998. Since then, while pursuing his own writing ambitions, he has filled many roles in the life of the writer/artist. He has taken dictation whenever and wherever asked: whether Gray is in bed, in hospital or drinking soup cold from the can, he is there with a pad or a laptop, awaiting instructions. He has been barman, tutee, secretary, signature forger, driver, researcher, advisor, chief technology negotiator, tea-maker and paper boy, with varying degrees of success. In this book Glass attempts one more role - biographer. Born in Manchester, he lives in Glasgow.

Customer Reviews

Mr Boswell, I presume?
Superb warts'n'all biography of Scotland's greatest living writer. All the detail you need to make you want to re-read the entire Gray oeuvre.

First class
I find it hard to believe any fan of Alisdair Gray would be disappointed with this book. I believe it provides a fascinating insight into the mind and motivation of a career author. One for who writing isn't his main passion. It was written by a friend and employee so it isn't the full horror but there are enough hints to be entertaining ! The co author is of course Gray himself, pushing his post modern 'author in the plot' agenda ever further by giving interviews and bravely agreeing to the project.

shades of gray
Excellent, this book gives a great insight to the man's life at all the weird and wonderful stages.