Ninety-Nine Novels: Lanark by Alasdair Gray

The International Anthony Burgess Foundation Podcast

In this episode, we’re exploring a parallel universe Glasgow as we talk about Alasdair Gray’s Lanark with writer and biographer Rodge Glass.

Lanark is a strange, experimental book that immediately thrusts the reader into a weird world with glimmers of familiarity. It’s a novel with two stories, that weave around each other but don’t quite come together in an obvious way. It begins with the story of a man called Lanark, whose lonely existence in the city of Unthank is eventually disturbed when his skin begins to grow dragon scales. This story is interrupted by that of Duncan Thaw, who remembers his journey to become an artist, studying at the Glasgow School of Art and struggling to get by painting murals around the city. What, if anything, is the connection between Thaw and Lanark?

Alasdair Gray was born in Riddrie, Glasgow in 1934. He began studying at the Glasgow School of Art in 1953, where he started writing Lanark. He graduated in 1957 and painted murals around Glasgow. Many of his murals have been lost, but some can still be seen around the city. Most famously, his mural at the Òran Mór theatre is the largest public artwork in Scotland. Alongside his career as an artist he wrote nine novels, five collections of short stories, and several works for the theatre. He died in 2019.

Rodge Glass is the author of seven published books across fiction, the graphic novel, the short story and nonfiction, including Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography, which won a Somerset Maugham Award for Nonfiction, and his new book Michel Faber: The Writer & his Work, published by Liverpool University Press in August 2023. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and was the Convener of the 2nd International Alasdair Gray Conference hosted in Glasgow in 2022. He works closely with the Alasdair Gray Archive on creative commissions, academic work and on building Gray's legacy internationally.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Alasdair Gray:

'The Star' in Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983)

1982, Janine (1984)

The Fall of Kelvin Walker (1985)

Poor Things (1992)

A Life in Pictures (2009)

By others:

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (1651)

'The Crystal Egg' in The Country of the Blind and Other Selected Stories by HG Wells (1897)

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce (1939)

Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography by Rodge Glass (2009)

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LINKS

Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography by Rodge Glass (affiliate link)

Michel Faber: The Writer & His Work by Rodge Glass (affiliate link)

The Alasdair Gray Archive

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective.

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