A Scottish writer whose works are a captivating blend of realism, fantasy, and science fiction. His innovative approach to writing, often enhanced with his own illustrations and unique typography, positions his creations as landmarks of postmodern literature. Compared to literary giants like Kafka and Borges, his novels and short stories delve into profound themes and have inspired a generation of subsequent Scottish authors. Gray's body of work stands as a testament to his visionary spirit and distinct perspective on the world.
'Grandly conceived, gorgeously realised, and sparklingly alert to the making not just of works of art, but of a language, this crammed compendium, so copiously yet lightly learned, so drolly self-reflexive, yet enticingly accessible, so exhilaratingly, quixotically magniloquent, is the last word in forewords.' Herald
From the genius of Scottish letters, a satire of religion, the media and London
Describing etiquette, government, irrigation, education, clogs, kites, rumour, poetry, justice, massage, town-planning, sex and ventriloquism in an obsolete nation. Alasdair Gray was born in 1934. He obtained a diploma in Design and Mural Painting in 1957 and has since earned his living in Glasgow, mostly by painting and writing. Much of his fiction is published in Penguin, including 1982 Janine, Poor Things, Ten Tales Tall & True and Unlikely Stories, Mostly, from which Five Letters from an Eastern Empire is taken.
An authoritative collection of Alasdair Gray's stories gathered over the last twenty five years.
This novel is a work of extraordinary imagination and wide range. Its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind's inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying.
The loves and lives of June, Senga and Donalda are told in this book which covers the period 1963 to 1990. Also featured are unhappy children, a liberal headmistress, a tobacconist's family, a commercial traveller, a lighthouse keeper and a pimp. From the author of "Lanark".
Duncan Thaw, the narrator, has to cope with a loveless family and the drudgery of growing to maturity in Glasgow. Elsewhere the author moves Thaw into fantasy when he sends him to Unthank, a city he is condemned to after his death. From the author of "Something Leather".
This pamphlet is for anyone alarmed by the present British government. It argues that the component nations of the United Kingdom can become true democracies only by declaring themselves republics. The authors are Alasdair Gray, writer of fiction and pamphlets such as Why Scots Should Rule Scotland, and Adam Tomkins, Professor of Public Law in the University of Glasgow and author of Public Law and Our Republican Constitution. Both are committed republicans.
A fantastical comedy from the irreplaceable Alasdair Gray
Set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, this modern vision of hell tells the interwoven stories of two men: Lanark and Duncan Thaw. As the Life in Four Books unfolds, the strange, buried relationship between Lanark and Thaw slowly starts to emerge. Lanark is a towering work of the imagination and is the culmination of twenty-five years of work by Gray, who also illustrated and designed the novel. On its first publication it was immediately recognised as a major work of literature, and drew comparisons with Dante, Black, Joyce, Orwell, Kafka, Huxley and Lewis Carroll. Thirty years on, its power, majesty, anger and relevance has only intensified.
