No Mean Glasgow

Author : Colin MacFarlane
Publisher : Random House
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2011-03-11
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781845969745

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No Mean Glasgow by Colin MacFarlane Pdf

In his last book, The Real Gorbals Story, Colin MacFarlane detailed how he witnessed a once great area, home to wonderful characters and grand old buildings, disappear before his eyes. By the time MacFarlane's tenement was knocked down in the early 1970s, he had left school and been rehoused in another part of the city. In an attempt to extricate himself from his Gorbals gang days, he took a job as an apprentice chef at one of Glasgow's top restaurants, where he soon discovered that his colleagues were just as insane as those he had mixed with on the city streets. Meanwhile, MacFarlane struggled to integrate into the more affluent area that his family had been moved to and soon found himself returning to his old haunts and back in trouble again. In No Mean Glasgow, MacFarlane charts his eventful, fun-packed passage from Gorbals street boy to grown man on the brink of a new beginning. He describes his adventures with a mixture of humour, sadness and delight. It is a book for those people living all over the world who remember the old Glasgow - a city teeming with warmth, passion, patter and characters who could brighten up even the darkest of days.

Author : Alexander McArthur,H. Kingsley Long
Publisher : Random House
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : Gangs
ISBN : 9780552075831

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No Mean City by Alexander McArthur,H. Kingsley Long Pdf

No book is more associated with the city of Glasgow than No Mean City. First published in 1935, it is the story of Johnnie Stark, son of a violent father and a downtrodden mother, the 'Razor King' of Glasgow's pre-war slum underworld, the Gorbals. The savage, near-truth descriptions, the raw character portrayals, bring to life a story that is fascinating, authentic and convincing.

Author : Alexander McArthur (of Glasgow.),Herbert Kingsley Long
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 1935
Category : American fiction
ISBN : UCAL:$B301217

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No Mean City by Alexander McArthur (of Glasgow.),Herbert Kingsley Long Pdf

The story of life in the Gorbals, a run-down slum district of Glasgow (now mostly demolished, but re-built in a contemporary style) with the hard men and the razor gangs.

Author : Colin MacFarlane
Publisher : Random House
Page : 181 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2011-07-22
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781780571683

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The Real Gorbals Story by Colin MacFarlane Pdf

Colin MacFarlane was born in the Gorbals in the 1950s, 20 years after the publication of No Mean City, the classic novel about pre-war life in what was once Glasgow's most deprived district. He lived in the same street as its fictional 'razor king', Johnnie Stark, and subsequently realised that a lot of the old characters represented in the book were still around as late as the 1960s. Men still wore bunnets and played pitch and toss; women still treated the steamie as their social club. The razor gangs were running amok once again, and filth, violence, crime, rats, poverty and drunkenness abounded, just like they did in No Mean City. MacFarlane witnessed the last days of the old Gorbals as a major regeneration programme, begun in 1961, was implemented, and, as a street boy, he had a unique insight into a once great community in rapid decline. In this engrossing book, MacFarlane reveals what it was really like to live in the old Gorbals.

Author : Kathleen Glasgow
Publisher : Ember
Page : 449 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2018-04-10
Category : Young Adult Fiction
ISBN : 9781101934746

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Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow Pdf

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A haunting, beautiful, and necessary book."—Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge. A deeply moving portrait of a girl in a world that owes her nothing, and has taken so much, and the journey she undergoes to put herself back together. Kathleen Glasgow's debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from. And don’t miss Kathleen Glasgow's novels You’d Be Home Now and How to Make Friends with the Dark, both raw and powerful stories of life.

Author : Peter McAleese
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2001-02
Category : History
ISBN : 0304356840

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No Mean Soldier by Peter McAleese Pdf

Absolutely incredible, and brutally honest, this amazing story recounts the adventures of a British SAS soldier turned mercenary. McAleese fought in some of the world's most dangerous places, from Aden to Rhodesia (against the guerrillas of Zanla), and he nearly lost his life trying to assassinate Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar. Always in search of the "intense high" of battle, for 25 years he saw almost constant combat...putting him in a unique position to reveal the harsh realities of modern warfare.

Author : Harry McShane,Joan Smith
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1978
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015017668792

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Harry McShane by Harry McShane,Joan Smith Pdf

Author : Douglas Stuart
Publisher : Knopf Canada
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2022-04-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781039003712

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Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart Pdf

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL • NPR • KIRKUS REVIEWS • TIME • AMAZON • THE WASHINGTON POST • THE TIMES (UK) • DAILY HIVE • THE TELEGRAPH • FINANCIAL TIMES • THE GUARDIAN • LITERARY HUB • THE HERALD (UK) • READER’S DIGEST • VANITY FAIR • LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS "Young Mungo seals it: Douglas Stuart is a genius." —The Washington Post From the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain, Young Mungo is both a vivid portrayal of working-class life and the deeply moving story of the dangerous first love of two young men. Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in a hyper-masculine world. They are caught between two of Glasgow’s housing estates where young working-class men divide themselves along sectarian lines, and fight territorial battles for the sake of reputation. They should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all, and yet they become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the dovecote that James has built for his prize racing pigeons. As they begin to fall in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his elder brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold. But the threat of discovery is constant and the punishment unspeakable. When Mungo’s mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland, with two strange men behind whose drunken banter lie murky pasts, he needs to summon all his inner strength and courage to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future. Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism, Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the meaning of masculinity, the push and pull of family, the violence faced by so many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.

Author : Leonard Albert Paris
Publisher : FriesenPress
Page : 121 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2020-09-23
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781525576683

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Jim Crow Also Lived Here by Leonard Albert Paris Pdf

Many people believe that racism and discrimination against those of African descent was primarily an American experience. However, this book dispels that myth by recounting Leonard Albert Paris’s first eighteen years (1948–1966), growing up as a Black youth in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, a province that was at the time, home to about 36 percent of Canada’s Black population. Structural racism, community isolation, and generational poverty affected every aspect of his life, creating challenges and misery for him, his family, and the entire Black community—an experience that continues to affect him emotionally many decades later. While not as extreme as it was during the author’s formative years, racism and its effects continue into the present. Leonard wrote Jim Crow Also Lived Here in part to create awareness of this problem and also to inspire change.

Author : Liam McIlvanney
Publisher : House of Anansi
Page : 409 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2018-07-24
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781487003760

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The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney Pdf

In the chilling new crime novel from award-winning author Liam McIlvanney, a serial killer stalks the streets of Glasgow and Detective Inspector McCormack follows a trail of devastating secrets to uncover the truth ... Glasgow, 1969. In the grip of the worst winter for years, the city is brought to its knees by a killer whose name fills the streets with fear: The Quaker. He takes his next victim — the third woman from the same nightclub — and dumps her in the street like rubbish. The police are left chasing a ghost, with no new leads and no hope of catching their prey. DI McCormack, a talented young detective from the Highlands, is ordered to join the investigation. But his arrival is met with anger from a group of officers on the brink of despair. Soon he learns just how difficult life can be for an outsider. When another woman is found murdered in a tenement flat, it’s clear the case is by no means over. From ruined backstreets to the dark heart of Glasgow, McCormack follows a trail of secrets that will change the city — and his life — forever.

Author : Reg McKay
Publisher : Black & White Publishing
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2006-04-15
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9781845025229

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The Last Godfather by Reg McKay Pdf

It used to be thought that no single person could rule the mean streets of Glasgow. Arthur Thompson proved this to be wrong. From an ordinary working-class family, Thompson started out as a bouncer and minder. Hard yet bright, he learned quickly. Cross him and you'd be scarred. Cheat him and he nailed you to the floor, crucifixionstyle. The gangsters of Glasgow thought it couldn't get any worse - it did. For forty years, Thompson ruled Glasgow and there came a time when his capacity for violence became so boundless that people would pray to be crucified. This fully revised edition of The Last Godfather visits places no law-abiding person has been. The gunrunning, murders, drug dealing and torture are all still there but there's much more - atrocities like how he improved on crucifixion as a means of revenge, how he created Europe's Tartan Mafia, how he invented concrete boots as a failsafe way of disposing of enemies' corpses. Then there are the ways he has had an impact on the lives and, more importantly, deaths of others - one man killed by a sniper, another kidnapped in London and tortured for days in Glasgow. Thompson died of natural causes but his influence didn't stop at his grave - which, incidentally, was deliberately left unmarked in case someone he'd had a run-in with decided to dig him up and wreak some kind of horrible revenge. This new edition includes previously unexplored aspects of Thompson's legacy and investigates the reasons there could never be another gang lord as all-powerful as Arthur Thompson - why he was destined to become The Last Godfather.

Author : Douglas Stuart
Publisher : Picador USA
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 152901929X

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Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart Pdf

Winner of the Booker Prize Winner of 'Book of the Year' and 'Debut of the Year' at the British Book Awards The Million-Copy Bestseller 'An amazingly intimate, compassionate, gripping portrait of addiction, courage and love.' - The judges of the Booker Prize 'Douglas Stuart has written a first novel of rare and lasting beauty.' - Observer It is 1981. Glasgow is dying and good families must grift to survive. Agnes Bain has always expected more from life, dreaming of greater things. But Agnes is abandoned by her philandering husband, and as she descends deeper into drink, the children try their best to save her, yet one by one they must abandon her to save themselves. It is her son Shuggie who holds out hope the longest. Shuggie is different, he is clearly no' right. But Shuggie believes that if he tries his hardest, he can be normal like the other boys and help his mother escape this hopeless place. Shuggie Bain lays bare the ruthlessness of poverty, the limits of love, and the hollowness of pride. For readers of A Little Life and Angela's Ashes, it is a heartbreaking novel by a brilliant writer with a powerful and important story to tell. 'A heartbreaking novel' - The Times 'Tender and unsentimental . . . The Billy Elliot-ish character of Shuggie . . . leaps off the page.' - Daily Mail

Author : Peter McAleese
Publisher : Helion and Company
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2015-07-19
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781911096795

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Beyond No Mean Soldier by Peter McAleese Pdf

The SAS veteran, mercenary and author of No Mean Soldier looks back on a life of combat in this revised and expanded edition of his classic memoir. Peter McAleese’s No Mean Soldier set the bar for the modern military memoir. This completely revised and expanded edition sees a philosophical McAleese revisiting his time with Britain's Parachute Regiment, the SAS, Rhodesia's SAS and the South African Defense Force's 44 Para Brigade. Peter also recounts a range of other adventures, from his experiences with private military companies to near fatal skydiving accidents. With previously unpublished photos from McAleese’s private collection, Beyond No Mean Soldier delves deeper and further into the author’s wide-ranging experiences, the men he's served with, and the operations he'd conducted. Here in startling detail are the Aden insurgency; covert operations with the Rhodesian SAS; one of the first ever operational HALO inserts in British military history; assaults on SWAPO positions with 44 Para's Pathfinder Company; a botched assassination attempt in Colombia; and much more.

Author : Alasdair Gray
Publisher : Canongate Books
Page : 15 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781841959078

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Lanark by Alasdair Gray Pdf

This novel is a work of extraordinary imagination and wide range. Its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind's inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying.

Author : Andrew Davies
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 469 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2013-08-15
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9781444739787

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City of Gangs: Glasgow and the Rise of the British Gangster by Andrew Davies Pdf

**Includes fascinating stories about Billy Fullerton, leader of the Billy Boys, featured in the latest series of BBC's Peaky Blinders** 'A new type of criminal is in our midst - a dangerous, ruthless, well-armed man, who will stick at nothing, not even murder. He is introducing into this country the gangster methods of Chicago and New York... Trade depression has thrown into unemployment thousands of unskilled youths who have nothing to do but lounge about the street corners of our slums in gangs.' John Bull weekly newspaper, 1932. During the 1920s and 1930s, Glasgow gained an unenviable and enduring notoriety as Britain's gang city - the 'Scottish Chicago'. Now Andrew Davies, author of the acclaimed The Gangs of Manchester, brings to life the reign of terror exerted on Glasgow by gangs like the Billy Boys, the Kent Star, the Savoy Arcadians and the South Side Stickers. Out of the most dilapidated and overcrowded tenements in Britain, stepped young men and women dressed like Hollywood gangsters and their molls. On the city's streets, they took centre stage in dramas of their own making, fighting territorial battles laced with religious sectarianism and running protection rackets modelled on those of the American underworld. Drawing on fifteen years of original research, Andrew Davies provides compelling portraits of legendary figures such as 'Razor King' John Ross and Billy Fullerton, leader of the Billy Boys - described as the 'Al Capone' of the city's East End. He sheds new light on the way the city's police and judiciary dealt with the gangs and reveals the fascinating role played by the media in creating myths of the underworld. During what the Daily Express described as 'The War on the Gang', Glasgow's police were led by Chief Constable Percy Sillitoe (who later became head of M15), determined to maintain the image as a tough, gang-busting cop he had forged in Sheffield during the 1920s. This dramatic story, played out against the backdrop of the most volatile of Britain's cities, provides a new window onto the most turbulent period in modern British history and a timely reminder of how deprivation, unemployment and religious bigotry are a toxic cocktail in any era.