Alasdair Gray

Writing was not Alasdair Gray (1934-)'s only - or even his original - muse. He is also a talented artist and having trained at the School of Art in his native Glasgow, he spent over 25 years using his painting skills (particularly in working with large-scale murals) to earn his keep...
He had written and had produced a number of television and radio plays during this period but it was not until the publication of his first novel Lanark in 1981 that his writing began to take precedence. Lanark won the Saltire and David Niven Awards and is regarded by some critics as one of the most influential and important literary works of the last century. The 1980s and 90s were a very prolific period for Gray in terms of both his fiction and non-fiction output. His 1992 novel Poor Things won both the Guardian and Whitbread Awards, while his polemical pieces on Scottish independence and his monumental Book of Prefaces (a comprehensive and exceptionally erudite history of literature) attracted much critical praise.


 
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