William McIlvanney | |
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McIlvanney at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2013 | |
Born | William Angus McIlvanney 25 November 1936 Kilmarnock, Scotland |
Dee'd | 5 December 2015 (aged 79) Glesga, Scotland |
Eddication | Glesga Varsity |
Notable warks | Docherty (1975), Laidlaw (1977), Strange Loyalties (1991) |
Bairns | Liam McIlvanney (son) |
Wabsteid | |
williammcilvanney |
William McIlvanney (25 November 1936 – 5 December 2015) wis a Scots novelist, short story scriever, an makar.[1] He wis kent as Gus by friends and acquaintances.[2] McIlvanney wis a champion o gritty yet poetic leiteratur; his warks Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch, an Walking Wounded is aa weel-kent for their shawin o Glesga in the 1970s. He is regairdit as "the faither o Tartan Noir" an as Scotland's Camus.
McIlvanney wis born in Kilmarnock on 25 November 1936, the youngest o fower bairns o an umwhile miner, an went tae Kilmarnock Academy.[3] He went on tae study Inglis at Glesga University an graduatit wi ae MA in 1960.[1] McIlvanney then wirkit as ae Inglis dominie til 1975, whan he quit as assistant heiddominie at Greenwood Academy tae mak forrit wi his writin career.[1] His aulder brither wis the sports jurnalist Hugh McIlvanney.[1] His son, Liam McIlvanney, is a crime writer as weel.[4]
As weel as his leiteratur, McIlvanney wrate on a reglar basis for newspapers, an wis a writer an narrator o the BBC Scotland fitba documentary Only a Game? in 1986.[5][6]
McIlvanney haudit ontae his strang socialist views ootthrouh his life. Lik ithers fae his backgrund in Scotland, he wis strangly agin Thatcherism. Later he becam disappyntit bi the shift o Labour unner Tony Blair an bi 2014 he felt, hesitantly, that Scottish independence micht be the best poleitical solution.[7]
William McIlvanney deet on 5 December 2015 aged 79, efter a wee spell o illness.[8] On hearin o his daith, sindry public figures, siclik Nicola Sturgeon, Ian Rankin and Irvine Welsh, gied mense notin baith his inspirational writin and his likeable an gentlemanly personality.[9][10] The Telegraph's obituary wrate: "Many authors are admired. Many are respected. Few are loved as he was, for what they are as well as for what they have written."[10]
His first buik, Remedy is None, wis furthset in 1966[11] an won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1967.[12] Docherty (1975), anent ae miner that's courage an endurance is pit tae the test durin the depression, won the Whitbread Novel Award.[13]
The Big Man (1985) is the story o Dan Scoular, an unemployed man that turns tae bare-knuckle fechtin tae mak thrift. Baith nuvels hae typical McIlvanney chairacters – teucht, aft violent, men lockit in a fecht wi their ain nature an upbringin.[14] The nuvel wis turnt intae ae film in 1990 directit by David Leland, starrin Liam Neeson, an kythin Billy Connolly.[15]
His novel, The Kiln (1996) won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award.[16]