CATALIST
series of the same name. it comprises over 200 short stories based around Glasgow. drawing on a universal mish mash ofelements.
l Glasgow: Portraits of a City Allan Massie (Barrie and Jenkins £14.95) Another history ofthe city. but this one‘s a proper tome. meaty severity for the academia. Dates. stats. analyses. A taxing and ultimately worthwhile read. (Susan Mackenzie) I Glasgow Elizabeth Williamson. Anne Riches and Malcolm Iliggs (Penguin £20) The third book in ‘The Buildings of Scotland‘ series. as you might expect this is the chunkiest yet. Replete with history. detail. maps. glossary. and over 120 illustrations. it is a dry triumph. the tome for those who keep their feet on the ground and their eyes on the elevations.
I Dance of the Apprentices Edward (iaitens (Canongate £4.95) First published in 1948. this Gorbals classic has been unavailable for years. The gritty. compassionate story of hard men and women. wasted lives and dawning desire for education and art. it brings vividly to life the squalid community ofcloses. pubs and corner shops. where you could live for eighteen years and not be sure what daffodils were like.
I That Rubens Guy John McGill (Mainstream £9.95) McCiill‘s debut is a compelling delight: an anonymous close in an anonymous (ilasgow slum tenement of the 50s providing the backdrop for a collection of short stories probing the insular world of Number 30.
Each last resident is a genuine ‘character' — from The Man With the Painted IIeid. to Wee Pete. a grubby little brat who worships Rubens. Mutually. they work a web of relationships. Each door holds a new domestic drama magnified tenfold by the closeness of the community.
The picture painted is one of poverty and deprivation. yet not altogether black. It was a way oflife. with the many petty jealousies depicted paling into insignificance by today's avaricious standards. Instead. the deprivation manifests itselfin strength ofspirit and character. loyalty to one's neighbour.
Above all. the coarseness ofthe ‘(ilasgow patter‘. amateur snobbery.
superficial battles and ludicrous happenings within the close provide unbridled humour — razor-sharp dialogue and outlandish scenarios. You are sucked in through the keyhole. You live at number 30 and you care about the fate of these amazing characters. And when a side-splitting tale takes an unexpected. tragic turn the impact is all the more real.
That Rubens Guy is incomparable. The Broons and Brendan Behan rolled into one.
(Susan Mackenzie)
I Lies of Silence Brian Moore (Bloomsbury £12.99) Murderers and other miscreants. according to criminal psychologists. bolt for home. So. too. do novelists. Belfast-bred Moore. a Canadian citizen living in California. has returned to the Falls Road where every car-boot is a potential booby trap. Like his hero. Dillon. a dried-up poet and a successful hotelier. he has gone away and come back: ‘He was one of them. born here like most ofthcm. He understood their way ofjoking. their way ofworking. the things they left unsaid.‘ What is unsaid by Brian Moore in this typical sprint of a novel is where the ‘Lies ofSilence' breed. Dillon wants out; of his marriage. his job. Belfast. This would be enough for most novelists. But Moore. another ofGraham Greene‘s ‘favourite living‘ novelists. twists the tale ofmarital disharmony and conjures a thriller in which the tension is palpable. and the moral dilemmas cumulate like fur-balls. Bashing the IRA. it is as courageous a work as The Satanic Verses. insidiously readable. sharp and suspenseful to the last desperate sentence. (Jenni Allan)
The late Rev Dr Davidson and wile displaya retirement present lrorn Glasgow Cathedral (1967). From Dear Happy Ghosts: Scenes from the Outram picture archives 1898—1990 (Mainstream £14.95), an ecletic and revealing social history gleaned lorthe libraries of the ‘Glasgow Herald'. ‘Evening Times' and defunct ‘Bulletln'. Accompanying comment from William Hunter. ‘llerald. columnist.
GLASGOW DISTRICT LIBRARIES PUBLICATIONS
CATHCART AND ENVIRONS A PICTORIAL REMINISCENCE Jean Marshall
Guided tour of this historic part of Glasgow which can be comfortably covered by car in under two hours allowing for stops. PRICE £3.95 each plus POSTAGE: as pence UK; £1.00 surface mall world-wide. ISBN 0906169-26-7.
AULD HAWKIE AND OTHER GLASGOW CHARACTERS Dorothy Whitaker
Fifteen famous characters of old Glasgow, each with full colour portrait, notes by Joe Eisner and poems by Freddie Anderson. PRICE £4.95 each plus POSTAGE: 54 pence UK; £1.20 surface mail world-wide. ISBN 0906169200.
YELLOW WEDNESDAY Jimmy Black
A miscellany of stories and poems rich in the humour and humanity of Glasgow's city-folk. PRICE £2.50 each plus POSTAGE: as pence UK; £1.00 surface mail world-wide. ISBN 0-906169-23-2.
YELLOW WEDNESDAY - THE CASSETTE Jimmy Black
The gathered bric-a-brac of Glasgow life, with the many voices of Jimmy Black, Andy Cameron, Charles Kearney, Mary Marquis, Forbes Masson. Katy Murphy and Dorothy Paul. Music by Blair Douglas, singer Lorna Brooks. PRICE £5.99 each plus POSTAGE: 30 pence UK; 60 pence surface mail world-wide.
RAB HA' THE. GLASGOW GLUTTON
Dorothy Whitaker and Cliff Hanley
A humorous history in full colour pictures and verse of the brief but memorable life of the Glasgow Glutton, whose name has become a byword for gargantuan gusto. PRICE £4.60 each plus POSTAGE: 62 pence UK; £1.00 surface mail world-wide. ISBN 0-906169-27-5.
And of course —
THE PATTER Michael Munro
Best-selling dictionary of Glaswegian speech, full of humorous examples. illustrated throughout by David Neilson. PRICE £3.50 each plus POSTAGE; 37 pence UK; 80 pence surface mail world-wide. ISBN 0-906169-09-7.
The original, and still the best, Glaswegian dictionary.
Please pay GLASGOW DISTRICT UBRARIES In Sterling and write to GLASGOW LIBRARIES PUBLICATIONS, THE MITCHELL LIBRARY. NORTH STREET, GLASGOW GS 7DN, SCOTLAND.
TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME
WATERSTON E’S ' BOOKSELLERS /
WATERSTON ES
5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY WEDNESDAY 25TH APRIL AT 7.00PM.
Guest of Honour will be
BRIAN MOORE
who will read from his brilliant new novel
LIES OF SILENCE
Entry by ticket only - Please phone 031 225 3436 to obtain yours.
REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED
WA TERSTONE & CO., 114 GEORGE ST., EDINBURGH. BRITISH BOOK A WARDS' BOOKSELLER OF THE YEAR, 1989
The List 20 April — 3 May I990 81