Alasdair Gray
Born in 1934, Alasdair Gray graduated in design and mural painting from the Glasgow School of Art. Since 1981, when Lanark was published by Canongate, he authored, designed and illustrated seven novels, several books of short stories, a collection of his stage, radio and TV plays and a book of his visual art, A Life in Pictures. In November 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement award by the Saltire Society. He died in December 2019, aged eighty-five.
Lanark
40th anniversary commemorative hardback edition of the modern classic
Gray: Beyond the Horizon
Gray: Beyond the Horizon is an interactive, multimedia journey through, round and about Alasdair Gray’s Lanark, from the extremely clever people at the Alasdair Gray Archive, with writer and digital designer Rachel Loughran.
To celebrate the first ever Gray Day – a celebration of the life and work of Alasdair Gray on 25th February 2021 – there will be a special Gray Day Broadcast, featuring guests like Ali Smith, Yann Martel, Gemma Cairney, Irvine Welsh, Ewen Bremner and more to be announced!
[update: Now that the Broadcast has run it is still available to view.]
“My problem is sex, or if it isn’t, sex hides the problem so completely that I don’t know what it is. I want revenge on a woman who is not real”
“I wanted to make stories and pictures. While writing or painting I forgot myself so completely that I did not want to be any different. I felt I was death’s equal.”
Alasdair Gray interviewed by the BBC in 2007 on his introduction to art and books.
“I was learning that I could have what I wanted if it was in words, pictures or songs, which are the only dependable forms of magic.”
The trailer for A Life in Progress: a feature length documentary on Alasdair Gray, filmed over the course of fifteen years.