Book Description

The story of a Scottish city as seen by its residents and visitors: “It’s a fine treasure-house—and even Glaswegians may learn something new from it.” —Scotsman This is the story of the fabled former Second City of the British Empire, from its origins as a bucolic village on the rivers Kelvin and Clyde, through the Industrial Revolution to the dawning of the second millennium. Arranged chronologically and introduced by journalist and Glasgowphile Alan Taylor, the book includes extracts from an astonishing array of writers. Some, such as William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Dirk Bogarde, and Evelyn Waugh, were visitors and left their vivid impressions as they passed through. Many others were born and bred Glaswegians who knew the city and its inhabitants—and its secrets—intimately. They come from every walk of life and, in addition to professional writers, include anthropologists and scientists, artists and murderers, housewives and hacks, footballers and comedians, politicians and entrepreneurs, immigrants and locals. Together they present a varied and vivid portrait of one of the world’s great cities in all its grime and glory—a place at once infuriating, frustrating, inspiring, beguiling, sensational, and never, ever dull.