Alasdair Gray rereads

Alasdair Gray rereads an excerpt from Chapter 11 of his second novel 1982, Janine. This is Alasdair's own choice of excerpt from what he felt was his best novel. And he continues reading until Jock's breakdown and the multiple sections of typeface defeat even his ability to read aloud. I made these recordings in what turned out to be the last year of my uncle's life - so I could spend more time with him and share with you the very great pleasure of sitting quietly at home with Alasdair listening to him read and talk about books. I couldn't have made these podcasts without the help of my family and friends: Alasdair Gray David Thomas - technical advice and support Berniya Hamie – closing piano Matthew Robinson – rereads logos Featured book: 1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes. And if you have any questions or thoughts to share I'd love to hear them – so please do leave a comment.

In 1993 Alasdair Gray sent his sister Mora a cassette tape in reply to one of her letters. On it he reads some of her favourites poems - along with his own personal selection - from his collection Old Negatives (published the same year). With thanks to: Alasdair Gray and Mora Rolley; David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Old Negatives: 4 Verse Sequences by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

In 1993 Alasdair Gray sent his sister Mora a cassette tape in reply to one of her letters. On it he reads the whole of this bitter-sweet short story Time Travel – which was published the same year with some revisions in Ten Tales Tall And True and later in Every Short Story. With thanks to: Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Ten Tales Tall And True by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.  

In 1993 Alasdair Gray sent his sister Mora a cassette tape in reply to one of her letters. He ends it with this excerpt from Lanark and an explanation of why he only included the miserable aspects of his childhood in the novel. With thanks to: Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Lanark by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

In 1993 Alasdair Gray sent his sister Mora a cassette tape in reply to one of her letters. On it he reads bits of his work he thinks she'll enjoy - including this excerpt from the Climax of Lanark that’s clearly based on memories of spending time with his own son, Andrew. With thanks to: Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Lanark by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

In 1993 Alasdair Gray sent his sister Mora a cassette tape in reply to one of her letters. On it he reads bits of his work he thinks she'll enjoy including this poem from 'In a Cold Room 1952 - 57' - the first of four verse sequences in Old Negatives. With thanks to: Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Old Negatives: 4 verse sequences by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads his own choice of short story, the slyly sinister The Trendelenburg Position. It was originally published in 1993 and although Alasdair never owned a television - and only engaged with digital technology via his assistants - the story is surprisingly prescient and still seems relevant today. With thanks to:Alasdair Gray;David Thomas - technical advice and support;Berniya Hamie – closing piano;Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Every Short Story 1951 - 2012 by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray continues rereading Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Sadly there wasn’t time for him to finish the whole book! But I found it so gripping I had to borrow it and read to the end. With thanks to: Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads the opening chapters of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure story, Treasure Island. Alasdair particularly admired the way Stevenson opened his novels and credited him with providing the model for the opening paragraph of his own novel, Poor Things. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray and his sister Mora recite and reread Edward Lear’s limericks and nonsense rhymes – which leads them on to childhood quarrels, other favourite books and poems and the huge influence of author-illustrators on Alasdair’s own art. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray & Mora Rolley;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Nonsense Omnibus by Edward Lear. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads the passage from Chapter 22 of Lanark that includes his most quoted excerpt - where Thaw explains to his friend McAlpin why nobody notices the magnificence of the city they live in. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Lanark by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray reads his own favourite excerpt from Lanark – Chapter 44. End. This podcast is in memory of my beloved Uncle who left us on the 29th of December. When I asked him why he had chosen this chapter he said "because it's the end and, I think, a rather good one". I'm so pleased to be able to say that Alasdair's own death - like his life - was a good one. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Lanark by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads an excerpt from the Epilogue of his novel Lanark - where the hero meets his author and argues against his forthcoming death. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Lanark by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray explains how H G Wells’s description of interplanetary conflict in The War Of The Worlds - informed by socialism and the brutality of the British Empire - quickly became a dominant narrative and rereads excerpts from the Wells novel that particularly impressed him - The First Men On The Moon. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: The First Men on the Moon by H G Wells. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads the first part of his essay New Kelvingrove from Of Me And Others - in which he describes how childhood visits to Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum fuelled his imagination and aided his obsession with creating and escaping to other worlds. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Of Me And Others by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads another excerpt from the stories that so terrified him as a child and explains how Edgar Allen Poe’s The Imp Of The Perverse relates to Freud’s death wish. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: The Imp Of The Perverse by Edgar Allen Poe. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray describes the terror he experienced as a child on first reading the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and rereads the start of one of his most famous works – The Fall Of The House Of Usher. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: The Fall Of The House Of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads excerpts from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea – the first science fiction he ever read and a book that improved his geography as he followed the path of the Nautilus on a globe of the world. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.  

Alasdair Gray rereads excerpts from Just So Stories to his sister Mora and they revisit Rudyard Kipling’s illustrations and rhymes – with one particular passage triggering thoughts of Jean Rhys and Eliot’s The Wasteland. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray and Mora Rolley; David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.  

Alasdair Gray rereads the beginning of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights – a book he mentions with great fondness in a number of podcasts and that he enjoys as much today as he did when he was a child. With many thanks to the copyright holders who very kindly gave us permission to reread this excerpt. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: The Box of Delights by John Masefield. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray talks about some of the work that influenced his Gothic novel Poor Things - from Thomas Love Peacock's Nightmare Abbey to Mel Brook’s film Young Frankenstein - and explains why he feels the opening of this book may be his best. Note: I incorrectly credit Gene Wilder as the director of Young Frankenstein in the podcast and Alasdair rightly sounds rather dubious. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads the beginning of Duncan Wedderburn’s hysterical (and hysterically funny) letter to Gordon Baxter from his Gothic novel Poor Things. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads excerpts from Jane Austen's first novel Northanger Abbey - where Austen pokes gentle fun at the attributes and experiences of the typical romantic heroine together with the craze for everything ghastly and Gothic. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads his short story The Crank That Made The Revolution from Unlikely Stories Mostly. Very clever, very poignant and very funny! With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray; David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Unlikely Stories Mostly by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray describes the concept of the Gothic novel and rereads the first chapter of Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock. This satirical novella was originally published in 1818 and was among the many influences on Alasdair's own Gothic novel Poor Things. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray introduces his Gothic novel Poor Things and rereads chapters four and five - A Fascinating Stranger and Making Bella Baxter.  With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Poor Things by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads chapter two of Alice in Wonderland – for those of us who enjoyed chapter one and want to hear a little bit more. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray;  David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray rereads The Star to his sister Mora - one of his best loved short stories and her own personal favourite. With thanks to: Alasdair Gray and Mora Rolley; David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano; Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Unlikely Stories Mostly by Alasdair Gray. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray explains to his sister Mora why Tenniel refused to work for Charles Dodgson again after illustrating the Alice books and rereads the beginning of this children’s classic. With thanks to:  Alasdair Gray and Mora Rolley;  David Thomas - technical advice and support; Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos. Featured book: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.

Alasdair Gray describes his early appearance on BBC Scotland's Children's Hour and he and his sister Mora reminisce about favourite childhood books, comics and radio programmes. With thanks to: Alasdair Gray and Mora Rolley;  David Thomas - technical advice and support;  Berniya Hamie – closing piano;  Matthew Robinson – rereads logos.  You can follow @alasdairgrayrereads on Instagram for news, pictures and previews of upcoming episodes.