| Alasdair Gray | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alasdair Gray 28 December 1934 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Occupation | Novelist, artist, playwright, academic, teacher, poet |
| Genres | Science fiction, dystopianism, surrealism, realism |
| Literary movement | Post-modernism |
| Notable work(s) | Lanark: A Life in Four Books 1982, Janine Poor Things The Book of Prefaces |
|
Influenced
|
|
Alasdair Gray (born 28 December 1934) is a Scottish writer and artist. His most acclaimed work is his first novel Lanark, published in 1981 and written over a period of almost 30 years. It is now regarded as a classic, and was described by The Guardian as "one of the landmarks of 20th-century fiction."[1] His novel Poor Things (1992) won the Whitbread Novel Award[2] and the Guardian Fiction Prize.[3] He is a Scottish civic nationalist and a republican.
Gray's works combine elements of realism, fantasy, and science fiction, plus clever use of typography and his own illustrations. He has also written on politics, in support of socialism and Scottish independence, and on the history of English literature. He has been described by author Will Self as "a creative polymath with an integrated politico-philosophic vision",[4] and as "a great writer, perhaps the greatest living in this archipelago today"[5] and by himself as "a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian".[6]
Contents |
Gray was born in Riddrie, east Glasgow. His father had been wounded in the First World War and worked at the time in a factory, while his mother worked in a shop. During the Second World War, Gray was evacuated to Perthshire and then Lanarkshire, experiences which he drew on in his later fiction. The family lived on a council scheme, and Gray received his education from a combination of state education, (at Whitehill Secondary School), public libraries, and public service broadcasting: "the kind of education British governments now consider useless, especially for British working class children", as he later commented. He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1952 to 1957, and taught there from 1958 to 1962. It was as a student that he first began what would become the novel Lanark.
After his graduation, Gray worked as a scene and portrait painter, as well as an independent artist and writer. His first plays were broadcast on radio and television in 1968. Between 1972 and 1974, he participated in a writing group organised by Philip Hobsbaum, where he met James Kelman, Liz Lochhead, and Tom Leonard. From 1977 to 1979, he was Writer in Residence at Glasgow University. In 2001, he became, with Tom Leonard and James Kelman, joint Professor of the Creative Writing programme at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities.
Gray illustrates his books himself, and has produced many murals as well as paintings. One of his longest-lasting murals can be seen in the Ubiquitous Chip restaurant in the West End of Glasgow.
In 2001, he stood as the candidate of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association for the post of Rector of the University of Glasgow, but was eventually narrowly defeated by Greg Hemphill. Formerly a supporter of the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Socialist Party, at the 2010 UK General Election he supported his local Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate, Katy Gordon.[7] He is a civic nationalist, stating in his 1992 book Why Scots Should Rule Scotland: "The title of this book may sound threatening to those who live in Scotland but were born and educated elsewhere, so I had better explain that by Scots I mean everyone in Scotland who is eligible to vote".[8]
He has been married twice: firstly to Inge Sorenson (1961–1970), and since 1991 to Morag McAlpine. He has one son, Andrew, born in 1964. He still lives in the West End of Glasgow.
He produced the ceiling mural for The Auditorium of the Oran Mor on Byres Road in Glasgow, one of the largest works of art in Scotland. [1]
Gray frequently uses the quotation, "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation", which is engraved in the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament building. He attributes the quote to Canadian author Dennis Lee. [2]
Novels
|
Short stories
Poetry
|
Theatre
|
Television
Radio
As illustrator
|
|
|
|||||