Alasdair Gray

2007

Book, 24.1 x 16.2 cm, 311 p., language : English, publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London, ISBN : 9780747593539.
Materials: Ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2027/35).

Literary synopsis

Scottish schoolmaster John Tunnock could not finish writing a book. He'd begin a manuscript on the trial of Socrates, only to become frustrated with details and get distracted with an idea he had about the Italian Renaissance. At the time of his death in 2007, at age 67 (foul play is suspected), he had a handful of such half-finished manuscripts about topics ranging from ancient Athens to 2003 Glasgow, along with a few diaries, and reminisces of his childhood after his mother was killed in the London Blitz. His heir Lady Sara Sim-Jaeger sought to find a suitable home for them. They have no real publishing value on their own, she thought, but perhaps a writer like Alasdair Gray, "who clearly has a high opinion of his own talents," could bring some form to the miscellanea and cobble it into a manuscript.

- Jessa Crispin