
The Fall of Kelvin Walker
Alasdair Gray(Author)
Canongate Canons (Publisher)
Published on 18. February 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
128 pages
978-1-83885-385-3 (ISBN)
Description
It is the Swinging Sixties and Kelvin Walker has moved from Scotland to London to make his fortune. Through his wanton ambition, a megalomania surfaces that is unrelieved by his insensitive attempts at friendship and romance. Yet is he all bad, or are the true villains the establishment figures who he tricks and deceives? And, ultimately, does it matter?
Gray's twist on the follies of religion, the media and the imperial British centre is as relevant now as ever.
Gray's twist on the follies of religion, the media and the imperial British centre is as relevant now as ever.
Reviews / Votes
Bawdy and exuberant * * Guardian * * A parable, a romp and, as I found, a one-compulsive-sitting read -- MELVYN BRAGG A necessary genius -- ALI SMITH One of the brightest intellectual and creative lights Scotland has known in modern times -- NICOLA STURGEON Gray is a true original, a twentieth century William Blake * * Observer * * The best Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott -- ANTHONY BURGESS One of the most gifted writers to have put pen to paper in the English language -- IRVINE WELSH Gray transformed our expectations of what Scottish literature could be -- VAL McDERMIDMore details
Series
Edition
Main - Canons
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Canongate Books
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 190 mm
Width: 124 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
94 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83885-385-3 (9781838853853)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Born in 1934, Alasdair Gray graduated in design and mural painting from the Glasgow School of Art. Since 1981, when Lanark was published by Canongate, he authored, designed and illustrated seven novels, several books of short stories, a collection of his stage, radio and TV plays and a book of his visual art, A Life in Pictures. In November 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Saltire Society. He died in December 2019, aged eighty-five.