Alasdair Gray
A Secretary's Biography
Published on 21. September 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-7475-9623-3 (ISBN)
Description
Alasdair Gray, author of the modern classics Lanark, Poor Things and 1982, Janine, is without doubt Scotland's greatest living novelist. Since trying (unsuccessfully) to buy him a drink in 1998, Rodge Glass, first tutee and then secretary to the author, takes on the role of biographer, charting Gray's life from unpublished and unrecognised son of a box-maker to septuagenarian "little grey deity" (as Will Self has called him). A Jewish Mancunian Boswell to Gray's Johnson, Glass seamlessly weaves a chronological narrative of his subject's life into his own diary of meeting, getting to know and working with the artist, writer and campaigner, to create a vibrant and wonderfully textured portrait of a literary great.
Reviews / Votes
'A story finely told ... Glass has produced a portrait that is critically intimate to the point of being genuinely, unashamedly loving' Prospect 'Alasdair Gray is spectacularly eccentric ... [This book] will ... delight the many devotees of the Gray cult' Financial Times 'A strange and nourishing stew' Time 'Honest and revealing, tender and, very unacademically, moving' The HeraldMore details
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2012
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Paperbacks
€16.49
Available for download
Previous edition
Book
09/2008
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€36.00
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Person
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.