The Oxfam bookshop on Glasgow’s Byres Road moved, recently, to a new location further down the hill – but I’m very pleased that they managed to take Alasdair Gray’s mural with them! I think he did this when on a break from painting the ceiling in Òran Mór …
#Scottish #literature #Glasgow #AlasdairGray #Murals #VisualArt
Alasdair Gray’s “The Great Bear Cult” is a script for a (rejected) documentary on the movement which briefly swept Britain in the 1930s. Although mention of the Cult is still suppressed, @canongatebooks includes the script in UNLIKELY STORIES, MOSTLY
Today, 7 November, is Hug A Bear Day 🧸
@bookstodon
Translating Alasdair Gray
Recorded at the Alasdair Gray Archive on 23 May: a conversation between Professor Enrico Terrinoni (translator of Gray’s work in Italian) & Dr Rodge Glass (Gray’s biographer).
https://youtu.be/fXaiJeJE33k?si=0UG58FFH5DiiMgAP
#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #translation #literarytranslation #Italian
The Long Shadow of Scottish Gothic
31 July, Glasgow
Tickets £13.44
From ‘Tam o Shanter’ through Jekyll & Hyde to Alasdair Gray & Muriel Spark, the Gothic has a vicelike grip on the Scottish imagination. Dr Valentina Bold & Prof Liam McIlvanney discuss Liam’s new psychological thriller THE GOOD FATHER, the enduring appeal of Scottish Gothic, & our fascination with the dark side
https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/the-long-shadow-of-scottish-gothic-liam-mcilvanney
#Scottish #literature #gothic #RobertBurns #RobertLouisStevenson #AlasdairGray #MurielSpark
Today, 20 July, is World Chess Day
Episode 2 of the Alasdair Gray Archive’s UNLIKELY OBJECTS MOSTLY looks at Alasdair’s chessboard & the part chess played in his practice, uncovering the game’s pivotal role in the making of his Hillhead Subway mural & the novel POOR THINGS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vbB7OeYkeo
#Scottish #literature #AlasdairGray #PoorThings #mural #murals #publicart #Glasgow #Chess #WorldChessDay
![broadcast and displayed, surely the BBC would be interested? It was not. I discovered that although Lord Reith's restrictions upon clothing, drink and sexual conduct had for years been matter for jest in the corridors of Broadcasting House and the Television Centre, his tabu upon all reference to the cult after Ramsay McDonald's famous broadcast to the nation was still in force. The BBC rejected my documentary drama. I offer it here, hoping readers will not be afraid to view it upon the television screen of their minds.
[ILLUSTRATION: In the centre is Rupert the Bear's smiling face, a tartan scarf around his neck; on either side, between 2 tall bearskin hats as worn by British guardsmen on parade, stand 2 portly, Winnie-the-Pooh-like figures, facing inwards, heads tilted proudly skywards. Each has their right arm raised in a fascist salute.]
1 STUDIO INTRODUCTION
To a recording of The Teddy Bears' Picnic the camera advances upon a commentator leaning casually against a table on which is displayed: a fancy-dress bear costume, a toy teddy bear, a Buckingham Palace sentry's bearskin helmet, a Daily Express Rupert Bear cartoon annual, and a copy of The House at Pooh Corner.
RECORDING: If you go down to the woods today
you're sure of a big surprise!
If you go down to the woods today
you'd better go in disguise!
For every bear that ever there was
Has gathered there for certain because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic!
COMMENTATOR: If you go down to the woods](/proxy/post_attachment/899662/7f585ffe8a.jpg "broadcast and displayed, surely the BBC would be interested? It was not. I discovered that although Lord Reith's restrictions upon clothing, drink and sexual conduct had for years been matter for jest in the corridors of Broadcasting House and the Television Centre, his tabu upon all reference to the cult after Ramsay McDonald's famous broadcast to the nation was still in force. The BBC rejected my documentary drama. I offer it here, hoping readers will not be afraid to view it upon the television screen of their minds.
[ILLUSTRATION: In the centre is Rupert the Bear's smiling face, a tartan scarf around his neck; on either side, between 2 tall bearskin hats as worn by British guardsmen on parade, stand 2 portly, Winnie-the-Pooh-like figures, facing inwards, heads tilted proudly skywards. Each has their right arm raised in a fascist salute.]
1 STUDIO INTRODUCTION
To a recording of The Teddy Bears' Picnic the camera advances upon a commentator leaning casually against a table on which is displayed: a fancy-dress bear costume, a toy teddy bear, a Buckingham Palace sentry's bearskin helmet, a Daily Express Rupert Bear cartoon annual, and a copy of The House at Pooh Corner.
RECORDING: If you go down to the woods today
you're sure of a big surprise!
If you go down to the woods today
you'd better go in disguise!
For every bear that ever there was
Has gathered there for certain because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic!
COMMENTATOR: If you go down to the woods")
