Notes Biographical and Critical
Poor Things: A Novel Guide is an Alasdair Gray Archive commisson. The Archive, which is run by custodian Sorcha Dallas, exists to enhance the reputation and understanding of one of Scotland’s most significant cultural polymaths of the 20th century, Alasdair Gray, and through his legacy support others through the provision of of awards, residencies, student placements and commissions. To find out more about the work of The Archive head to The Alasdair Gray Archive. To discover more about the colloborators who made this project possible see Notes Biographical below. For a list of references used in the Novel Guide head further down the page to Notes Critical.
Notes Biographical
‘These are only a few out of thousands whose help has not been acknowledged and whose names have not been mentioned’
– Alasdair Gray
Creative Lead
Rachel Loughran
Rachel is a writer, editor and designer specialising in digital curation. She holds a double-first in English from The University of Cambridge and a Masters with distinction from the Glasgow School of Art. Rachel has held editorial positions at Harper’s magazine among others. Her recently published work includes literary criticism for The National and Linseed Journal. Rachel collaborated with The Alasdair Gray Archive in 2021 on her interactive, multimedia exhibition Gray: Beyond the Horizon, which invites its audience to journey through the many pages of Gray's seminal novel Lanark: A Life in 4 Books (1981). The work was first exhibited alongside the 2014 screenprint of Lanark’s book jacket at GSA's postgraduate degree show. It now has a permanent home at The Alasdair Gray Archive.
Sorcha Dallas
Sorcha started managing the visual archive of Alasdair Gray in 2007. Since then she has researched, archived and accessioned his works into a system which allowed her to then devise and curate The Alasdair Gray Season, a city-wide festival celebrating Gray’s visual practice, the highlight of which was a large retrospective exhibition which she curated at Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museums in 2014/15. She has also delivered and published papers on Gray’s visual practice at conferences including ELIA, Glasgow 2014; The World Congress of Scottish Literature, Glasgow 2014 and Alasdair Gray International Conference, Brest, France, 2012. She has been responsible for Gray’s work being bought by major museum collections including Glasgow Life, Scottish National Galleries of Modern Art in Edinburgh, The Arts Council of England and most recently The Tate. She was responsible for securing Gray’s works posthumously and overseeing their safe removal and relocation to The Alasdair Gray Archive which she established after Gray’s death in 2019 with support from Gray’s family. She is currently working to secure the long-term legacy of Gray’s life and work through activities including new commissions, community engagement projects, education resources, exhibitions, student placements and more. Further information at www.thealasdairgrayarchive.org.
Project Commissioner
Bared Bodies
Bared Bodies was written by Rachel Loughran
It features Episode 1, The Green Chair, from The Alasdair Gray Archive podcast series Unlikely Objects Mostly (2022). The series was written and produced by Christopher Silver for the Alasdair Gray Archive, with support from the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, Creative Scotland and research assistance from Kim Crowley.
The Green Chair
CAST
Helen Lloyd, Rodge Glass, Mora Rolley, Kat Rolley, Gordon Lennox, May Hooper, Jeanne Roddick, Nichol Wheatley.
CONTRIBUTORS
Scott Twynholm - 'Writing on a Train' Kevin Cameron Lehman Productions - 'Writers Drafts Alasdair Gray for Radio Scotland' Lucy McKenzie/Decemberism- 'Some Gray Stuff' Cannongate Audio - Lanark Part 1 BBC Scotland/Edi Stark - 'Stark Talk Alasdair Gray' BBC Arts - Alasdair Gray at 80: Under the Helmet BBC Northern Orchestra - 'Lennox Berkley: The One Act Operas: Ruth' With special thanks to Jeanne Roddick and the church office at Greenbank Parish Church.
Kim Crowley
Kim Crowley is a curator based in Cork, Ireland. She is a 2022 graduate of the MLitt in Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) jointly delivered by the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow. Alongside her own practice, Kim is a co-director of Bloomers, an Irish arts organisation and publisher. Projects include 'The Licks Within The Lips' (upcoming exhibition by artist and writer Sarah Long), 'Reach Out and Touch Me' (2022), and 'Page / Process / Proceed' (2022). Kim's research is concerned with expanded publishing, language and networks of communication. The work looks at methods of creating networks and generative ways of working whilst embracing materiality and process. It looks at the page as a space for extension, iteration and translation.
Bella Baxter
The essay Bella Baxter: Georgeous Monster was written by Grace Richardson
Grace graduated from the University of Strathclyde with an MLitt in Interdisciplinary English Studies (2022) and has an MA in English Literature and History from the University of Glasgow. She has a particular interest in Scottish Literature, especially those novels published from the 1980s to the contemporary period. Her other key research areas include gender, class, identity, queer theory and ecology. Her MLitt dissertation was on climate change and Scottish literature, paving the way for a more ecological based thinking that links social, political, and environmental destruction within the canon. During her MLitt Grace undertook a research placement at the Alasdair Gray Archive and is excited to embark on an internship there in spring 2023. During her internship, she will be working closely with Sorcha Dallas as a Project Assistant on a range of projects from fundraising, project planning & delivery, education, visits, outreach and digital development.
It was introduced by Rachel Loughran and features contributions from
Papatya Alkan Genca
Papatya is a Turkish academic residing in London. She received her PhD with her dissertation titled “Postmodern Realisms in Jeanette Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry, Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things, and Peter Ackroyd’s The Plato Papers.” In addition to contemporary English and Scottish fiction, she is interested in Disability Studies both theoretically and as an activist. She is a board member of the International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus and works closely with European Patients Forum. She investigates the intersection of disability and literature, her current research concentrates on disability representations in literature.
Lucy Lauder
Lucy (she/her) is an editor of From Glasgow ToS aturn journal and final year student in English and Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. When not writing her dissertation, which is a poetic re[sponse] re[forming]of the tarot, Lucy can be found making pretty bowls of porridge and walking around.
Sara Sheridan
Sara has written over twenty books. She mapped Scotland according to women’s history in her 2018 David Hume Award non-fiction book, Where Are The Women? Her latest novel The Fair Botanists was Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2022.
Godwin Baxter
Godwin Baxter was written by Scott Hay
Scott Hay
Scott is from Kilmarnock, Scotland and since his youth has been an avid reader and writer. In 2021 he graduated from Strathclyde University with an honours degree in English, Creative Writing, and Journalism, and followed this in 2022 by completing his Masters (with distinction) in Creative Writing. He is teacher of English and is working on the manuscript for his first novel Cooncil – a surreal auto-fictive insight into the mundanities and deprivation present in everyday life in the West Coast of Scotland. Scott has worked previously with the Alasdair Gray Archive and has had a dramatic monologue filmed and published in partnership with the Archive and Strathclyde University.
It was introduced by Rachel Loughran and features contributions from
Stuart Cooney
Stuart works as a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS. He has an interest in the communication of psychological concepts and applying this to popular culture. Writing as The Paperback Psychologist, he uses a psychological approach to explore character and story in literature at thepaperbackpsychologist.com. He is from Hamilton, Lanarkshire and now lives in Edinburgh.
Bernard MacLaverty
Bernard was born in Belfast (14.9.42) and lived there until 1975 when he moved to Scotland with his wife, Madeline, and four children. He has been a Medical Laboratory Technician, a mature student, a teacher of English and occasionally a Writer-in-Residence (Universities of Aberdeen, Augsburg, Liverpool John Moore’s and Iowa State). After living for a time in Edinburgh and the Isle of Islay he now lives in Glasgow. He is a member of Aosdana in Ireland. He has published five novels and six collections of short stories most of which are gathered into Collected Stories (2013). He has written versions of his fiction for other media - radio plays, television plays, screenplays, libretti.
Nichol Wheatley
Nichol is a Scottish Artist, mainly interested in painting, large scale murals and mosaics. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art’s drawing and painting department in 1993. Nichol worked alongside Alasdair Gray as a collaborator for 15 years. During that time they became close friends, often unpicking artistic and practical knots over regular games of chess. Nichol ran Scotland’s largest commercial fine art studio from 2000 until 2012 and is best known for his series of murals depicting the tale of Tam o’Shanter in ten panels at Òran Mór and for his landscape painting. Nichol has also worked on several feature films, including “Trainspotting 2” and “Outlaw King”. He has made many murals and mosaics in his own name.
Teya Zeinalabidin
Teya graduated from the University of Glasgow in the summer of 2020 with a degree in English literature. She first encountered Alasdair Gray when she saw a facsimile of one of his murals exhibited in The Lighthouse in Glasgow. “I stood in front of the imposing work for so long, mesmerised by all the sublime figures curved out in black and white. In the months to come, Gray would pop up again, though this time with his literature, in the form of Poor Things. The sheer joy I felt reading the novel was unlike anything I’d experienced before. It was a feast for my eyes and my imagination and I was instantly hooked. To commemorate my love for Poor Things, I got a tattoo of Flopsy and Mopsy in the same summer I graduated and I feel honoured that I can carry around a piece of the literature with me wherever I go”. After completing her dissertation on Gray’s literature, she took the opportunity to volunteer in the Alasdair Gray Archive, primarily helping to archive the library which was set up to replicate the library in Gray’s Hillhead home. Teya hopes there will be endless opportunities to aid in furthering Gray studies in Glasgow and beyond for years to come.
General Blessington
General Blessington was written by Rachel Loughran with support from Scott McNee
The essay Contrasting Truths, and chracter descriptions for Blaydon Hattersley, Dr. Pricket and Mr. Harker were written by Shona McKenzie
Shona is an English Literature graduate of the University of Glasgow, where she first developed a passion for Alasdair Gray's work. Her research interests include Scottish literature, creative writing, and Modernist avant-garde movements.
It features contributions from
Michael Paget
Michael is a writer and illustrator currently working on a dystopian novel set in Italy. Most of his stories are horror and science fiction, many rooted in folktales, superstition, and history. He has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow and lives in Glasgow
Grant Rintoul
Grant has taught English in Fife for over thirty years.
Bella Caledonia
Bella Caledonia was written by Kirsten Stirling
Kirsten is an Associate Professor in the English department of the University of Lausanne, where she has taught since 1998. She studied at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, where she got both her MA (1995) and her PhD (2001). A revised version of her thesis was published as Bella Caledonia: Woman, Nation, Text (2008), a study of the gendered metaphors for Scotland in twentieth-century poetry and fiction, including Alasdair Gray’s 1982, Janine and Poor Things. She is the author of Peter Pan’s Shadows in the Literary Imagination (2012), and also publishes on early modern English poetry (especially the poetry of John Donne). She enjoys introducing Scottish literature in her classes at Lausanne, and Alasdair Gray has proved particularly popular among her students, a number of whom have written MA dissertations written on his novels.
Character Prompts
Character Prompts were written by Grace Richarson and Janaki Mistry
Janaki Mistry
Janaki holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University of London and a MLitt in Curatorial Practice from The Glasgow School of Art. Her curatorial practice is political with a soft p. Her practice lies in the crossover between arts education and the gallery as sites for social change. She addresses the cuts in education using radical hope through acts that may seem small but are fundamental to making meaningful impacts on the civic. As a curator, she designs, develops and delivers long-lasting projects which act as a framework for future educational projects. Mistry takes a sensitive approach to create a unique intersectional space for learning and exchange. Janaki has been collaborating with Sorcha Dallas on producing a Travelling Archive resource that schools and community groups can use independently. The Travelling Archive is filled with books, objects and artworks personal to Alasdair Gray, all inspired by the Archive. The aim is to teach students what Alasdair Gray was like and how the city of Glasgow inspired his creativity, hoping pupils will understand Scotland's culture.
Gray-the-Editor
Gray-the-Editor was written by Rachel Loughran with support from Scott McNee
Scott McNee
Scott tutors in English and Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde. His short fiction and poetry have been published in New Writing Scotland, Vastarien, Tether's End, Kalopsia, Gutter, Quotidian and The Grind. He is currently working on a short story collection. Poor Things is his favourite Alasdair Gray novel. McKee also compiled A Novel Guide's chapter Intertexts.
It features contributions from
Kevin Cameron
Kevin is an award winning filmmaker and artist with a long standing interest in co-production and participative work. He has made work for BBC, STV, Canal Plus in France and had numerous festival screenings, working with everything from animation to hand processed film. As a filmmaker, he has an eclectic approach to making work. This has included installation work and one off commissions; co-producing with groups in the community; feature length documentaries; film based research on participative practice. Cameron made the film A Life in Progress (2014) about artist and writer Alasdair Gray which premiered at the Sheffield Film Festival and screened twice on the BBC. A self-proclaimed 'one man band', Cameron self shoots and edits and also often works with stop frame animation. He particularly enjoys helping different groups use filmmaking to tell their own stories.
Rodge Glass
Dr Rodge Glass is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, where he is also the Convener of the MLitt in Creative Writing. He is Alasdair Gray’s only biographer. His book Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography (Bloomsbury, 2008), written independently but with the subject’s co-operation, was the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award for Non-Fiction in 2009 and was shortlisted for the Scottish Arts Council Non-Fiction Book of the Year. He is also the author of three novels: No Fireworks (Faber, 2005), Hope for Newborns (Faber, 2008) and Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs (Serpent’s Tail, 2013), also the graphic novel Dougie’s War (Freight, 2010, with Dave Turbitt) and the short story collection LoveSexTravelMusik: Stories for the EasyJet Generation (Freight, 2013). Recent publications include two chapters in Michel Faber: Critical Essays (Glyphi, 2020). He has written about Gray regularly since his biography, including a chapter in Ink for Worlds (Palgrave, 2014) and another, ‘Erasure and Reinstatement: Gray the Artist, Across Space and Form’, in the forthcoming Writing and Imaging Twenty-First Century Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2022). He was the Convener of the 1st International Online Alasdair Gray Symposium, titled ’Lanark &’, in April 2021, and is the Convener of the 2nd International Alasdair Gray Conference 2022.
David Hasson
David used to be an architect and remains on the register of architects. However, about a decade ago gave up practising as an architect for a living to be an academic: teaching, thinking and writing about architecture for a living. When he was an architect, he worked mostly in London and Glasgow, and has designed, or helped to design, pretty much every type of building, from wee house extensions to Royal Opera Houses. He especially enjoyed designing schools and housing. As well as working in Glasgow, for several years he worked for Glasgow, and in that capacity managed to contribute, if only a little, by helping form some aspects of policy and by the things he designed, to changing (he hopes improving) the form of the city he most loves. As an academic he has taught at Strathclyde University and (currently) at the Grenfell Baines Institute of Architecture, University of Central Lancashire, where among other things, he is subject lead for History and Theory. He has taught in cities as typologically and geographically distinct as Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia and Hong Kong. Wherever he teaches he advocates for the efficacy of stories and other literary forms as a useful means for architects to engage with the hugely complex nature of “The City”, and in places where it might be expected to be incongruous, he has always found that Gray´s work, and especially “Lanark” has some resonance.He is currently researching the life and work in Glasgow of a Hungarian refugee from pre-war anti-semitic persecution, as well as the struggle for egalitarian policies, especially in relation to Housing, that were the context for his work here. He is also writing and drawing on the subject of the connections between Music, Maths Literature, Philosophy and Architecture. In particular, but not only in the context of cities. At the moment his focus is on Glasgow and the works of Alasdair Gray and Edwin Morgan.
Gray-Social-Conscience
Gray-Social-Conscience was written by Scott McNee
It was introduced by Rachel Loughran and features contributions from
Alex Compton
Alexandra is in her final year of studying an English Literature MA at the University of Glasgow with a dissertation on autofictional accounts of women’s lives in post-war Glasgow. Her debut poetry pamphlet, A Thousand Binding Moments, was published in October 2022.
Chitra Ramaswamy
Chitra is an award-winning journalist and author. Her first book, Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy, won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Polari Prize. She has contributed essays to Antlers of Water, Nasty Women, The Freedom Papers, The Bi-ble and Message from the Skies. She is a TV critic for the Guardian, the restaurant critic for The Times Scotland, a columnist for the National Trust for Scotland and broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio Scotland. She lives in Edinburgh with her partner, two young children and rescue dog.
Hunterian Anatomy Lab
Hunterian Anatomy Lab was written, produced and edited by Rachel Loughran. It features contributions from
Ianto Jocks
Dr Ianto Thorvald Jocks is a Medical Historian and Science Technician with a background in Anatomy, Classics, and Chemistry, and with a particular research interest in the history of pharmacy, and in historic anatomical and natural history collections. For his PhD, he examined the former in the context of Latin medical and pharmacological texts, while his MSc in Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy involved research into the latter’s role in anatomical education past, present, and future. He is passionate about improving the accessibility of education and heritage collections, and about approaches to public engagement and science communication which integrate historical and technical perspectives.
Anthony Payne
After taking a degree in Zoology at Reading University, Anthony moved to the Anatomy Department at Birmingham to do a Ph.D. and post-doctoral research. The Birmingham department was headed by Sir Solly (later Lord) Zuckerman, who was Britain’s first Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government at the time of Harold Wilson’s premiership.
Anthony and his wife moved to Glasgow in 1973 where he found myself in one of the busiest Anatomy departments in Britain, teaching human gross anatomy, histology, embryology and neuroanatomy to a wide variety of students and post-graduates. Medical and dental students have always formed a core stream of our undergraduate teaching, supplemented at various periods by nurses and therapists; in more recent times there has been a strong upsurge in demand from science students and qualified doctors doing short vocational courses.
Throughout his career Anthony pursued a strong commitment to original research in areas such as sex differences in the nervous system, haem biosynthesis, models of Parkinson’s disease, and clinically-related anatomy, publishing over 100 full-length refereed papers. Research conferences led him to many parts of the world. He has also travelled widely as an examiner, both in the UK and abroad – particularly in the Middle East and Asia.
Iona Tytler
Iona is a current MSc Museum Studies student at the University of Glasgow, and recent MSc Gender History graduate. Their research interests are at the intersection of gender and LGBTQ+ history, alongside the representation of both in museum and heritage spaces. Iona can be found at: @ionatytler_
Mike Rutherford
A lifelong interest in nature led Mike to doing a BSc in Zoology at University of Glasgow in the 90s. He then continued his education at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia with a Masters in Conservation Biology where he was a research assistant for the Herpetology Unit and studied rainbow skinks. Mike moved back to the UK and became Keeper of the Tropical House at Newquay Zoo, then moved on to his first museum job as a Natural History Research Assistant for the Kelvingrove Project back in Glasgow. This led to Mike becoming Curator of Invertebrates (Non-Insects) for Glasgow Museums and allowed him to build experience in museum skills such as exhibition development, specimen collecting, processing and conservation, databases, and education outreach. Mike then left to work as Curator of Zoology for The University of the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago. There he developed the UWI Zoology Museum at the St. Augustine Campus and undertook a wide range of research and outreach activities. Finally Mike started work as a curator at University of Glasgow at the beginning of 2021.
Illustrations
Illustrations was written by Anthony Remy
Anthony is a senior teacher of English currently working as a teaching assistant at the University of Western Brittany, France. He is also currently writing his doctoral thesis entitled “Writing-Unwriting: The Paradoxes of the End in Contemporary English-Language Metafiction (Mark Z. Danielewski, Alasdair Gray, Lance Olsen, Will Self)”, under the joint supervision of Professor Camille Manfredi and Professor Emeritus Marie-Christine Agosto. Anthony Remy has published one article in the online journal Motifs (HCTI), in which another of his articles is being published, and one article in the online journal Sillages critiques (VALE). He was also part of the organising and scientific committees of the first international colloquium to be organised by the HCTI doctoral students, “The Out-of-Frame and the Unsaid in Texts and Images”, which was held in 2019.
Intertexts
Intertexts was researched and written by Scott McNee, it is introduced by Rachel Loughran and features contributions from Sorcha Dallas and Chitra Ramaswamy.
Archibald McCandless
Archibald McCandless was written by Rodge Glass. It features contrubutions from Grace Richardson
Victoria McCandless
Alasdair Gray's Medical Women: Poor Things, a Thesis and a History was written and produced by Rachel Loughran.
Its sound designer is Jen Martin. It includes music by Scott Tynham (Piano Lumineuse, Tekstura, Blurred Recordings) and features the audio play, Sophia, by Frances Poet. The extract from Poor Things (radio play) by Alasdair Gray is held on tape by the National Library of Scotland and was digitized on request by the Collections on Tape team at Glasgow Museums. Fiona Belchamber is the voice of Victoria McCandless - reading a Letter to Posterity - and of Sophia Jex Blake - reading the Preface to Medical Women. Dr. Sarah J. Ghasedi is the podcast's primary contributor. Emma Flynn wrote the character description for Victoria McCandless.
Fiona Belchamber
Fiona graduated from Mountview Academy in 2006 and has since acted on stage, film and audio. Fiona has enjoyed an array of diverse roles, engaging audiences with her flair for accents and characters. Audio work has always been a great love of Fiona's, notably in her role of Anouk, reading alongside Samantha Bond and Adjoa Andoh in The Lollipop Shoes, (the sequel to Chocolat) and produced by Penguin Random House.
Emma Flynn
Emma Flynn is a Glasgow based PhD student and tutor in literature and media at the University of Strathclyde. She researches representations of violence against women in English and French literature and film. A long-time Gray devotee, she writes fiction and runs a feminist reading group with Glasgow Zine Library.
Sarah J. Ghasedi
Sarah J. Ghasedi is a researcher and lecturer who specializes in Sophia Jex-Blake’s historic “Edinburgh Seven” campaign to open the medical profession to women. While in Edinburgh conducting archival research for her PhD thesis in 2019, Sarah discovered that Jex-Blake had worked as an anonymous journalist for the daily newspaper The Scotsman throughout the campaign. In fact, Jex-Blake hid this secret so well that for over 150 years, scholars believed that the Scotsman’s influential articles in support of Jex-Blake and her campaign had been written by the paper’s editor Alexander Russel or another male journalist. Sarah’s dissertation, which she completed at the University of Washington in 2021, explores Jex-Blake’s previously unknown contributions to the Scotsman between 1869-1873 and her anonymous self-citation of the Scotsman articles in other writings. Sarah’s work has appeared in The Scotsman and Victorian Periodicals Review, and she is currently revising her dissertation into a book.
Jen Martin
Jen Martin is a filmmaker, artist and writer. They graduated from MLITT Art Writing in 2021. They have extensive filmmaking and technical experience, working with artists in Scotland for many years. Jen also works in 16mm film, sound and print. Jen has exhibited films at Alchemy Film Festival in 2022, BBC Tectonics festival 2022, and at CCA Glasgow in 2019 as part of Some things want to run exhibition.
Piano Lumineuse by Scott Twynholm
First single from the forthcoming album Tekstura on London label Blurred Recordings released July 13, 2021. Music written and produced by Scott Twynholm. Alice Allen cello Fiona Brice violin and viola Scott Twynholm piano, accordion, organ and field recordings Strings recorded by Tony Doogan at Castle of Doom Recording Studios, Glasgow, Scotland.
Poor Things (radio play) by Alasdair Gray
CAST
Archibald McCandless - Jimmy Chisholm
Sophia by Frances Poet
CAST
Isabel Thorne - Maryam Hamidi
Helen Evans - Muireann Kelly
Edith Pechey - Clare Perkins
Sophia Jex-Blake - Madeleine Worrall
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer - Frances Poet
Director - Janys Chambers
Assistant Director - Emily Ingram
Original music created by - Nicolette Macleod
Sound Recordist - Sara Mattinson
Sound Designer - Paul Cargill
Poor Things Tour of Glasgow
Poor Things Tour of Glasgow was created by Rachel Loughran. It is based on research by Rachel Cochrane-Slocombe whose own exploration of Poor Things' Glasgow landamarks inspired the creation of this tour.
Rachel Cochrane-Slocombe
Rachel is an ex-archaeologist and current mother who enjoys hoarding books and going on a daunder. She discovered Gray through his murals and is now reading (and walking) her way through his novels.
Synopsis
The Synopsis was written by Rachel Loughran with contributions from
Peter McNally
Peter is a teacher of English and massive Alasdair Gray fan who stupidly and inexplicably didn’t really use Gray’s magical words and art in his classroom. He is now rectifying that.
Duncan Wedderburn
Duncan Wedderburn was written by Rachel Loughran and features contributions from Alexandra Compton, Sorcha Dallas
Joe Murray
Dr Joe Murray is a well-known Glasgow poet with broad reach having both an academic career in ecology and environmental science, as well as having played pivotal roles in the development of arts and culture in the city. In his artistic career his work has been published in various magazines and anthologies including New Writing Scotland and a short poetry collection called, Ruchazie Moon. Additionally he is the former editor of West Coast Magazine, of Taranis Books, and was director of EM-Dee Productions. For more than twenty years Joe worked with landmark fiction writer Alasdair Gray, as a producer, researcher and designer. He also worked for many years as a Countryside Ranger and as an Education Manager (mainly children's learning) with the National Trust for Scotland at Culzean Castle and Country Park and at Pollok House in Glasgow, respectively. His work in Glasgow, in arts, and in the environment has also informed the work of Chris Stephens MP.
Michael Pedersen
Michael is a prize-winning Scottish poet, writer, scribbler, stitcher. He's unfurled two acclaimed collections of poetry with Polygon Books and has a third (The Cat Prince & Other Poems) due with Corsair/Little Brown in summer 2023. His prose debut, Boy Friends, was published by Faber & Faber in 2022 in the UK & North America. He won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, the John Mather's Trust Rising Star of Literature Award, and was a finalist for the 2018 ‘Writer of the Year’ at The Herald Scottish Culture Awards. With work anthologised by the likes of Pan MacMillan and Canongate Books, Pedersen has collaborated with musicians, film-makers, and visual artists. Pedersen also co-founded Neu! Reekie! — a prize-winning literary production house that produced cutting edge shows in Scotland and the world over for over ten years. Within this capacity he has produced and curated events with / for: Edinburgh International Festival; Edinburgh International Book Festival; Hull City of Culture; Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture; BBC Arts; and more. He also co-edited the Neu! Reekie! anthology series, published by Polygon Books, charting ten years of Neu! Reekie! through poetry and music. His writing has appeared in the likes of: The Rialto, Ambit, The Dark Horse, Gutter, The Scotsman, Popshot, Q, The Skinny, Guardian and more.
Special Thanks
The Alasdair Gray Archive, Bloomsbury, Blurred Recordings, Canongate, Collections on Tape Glasgow Museums, Glasgow University Special Collections, The Hunterian Museum, Naked Productions, The National Library of Scotland, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, United Agents.
Notes Critical
Unless otherwise stated the page numbers from Poor Things (1992) used throughout Poor Things: A Novel Guide are from the following edition:
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
Abbreviations
LIP: Life in Pictures (2010)
PT: Poor Things (1992)
The Alasdair Gray Archive
References
‘The Alasdair Gray Archive’, 2021 <https://thealasdairgrayarchive.org/> [accessed 16 January 2023]
‘Our History’, 2023 A short film made by Kevin Cameron, narrated by Kate Dickie, about the Alasdair Gray Archive, our history and plans for the future. Funded by Creative Scotland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSKHfIN_2Xw&t=1s [accessed 24 April 2023]
Images
The Alasdair Gray Archive, photographed by Alan Dimmick in 2021
Alasdair Gray photographed, photographer unknown
Bared Bodies
References
Berger, John, Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin, 2008)
Gray, Alasdair, A Life in Pictures (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2010)
———, Something Leather (London: Cape, 1990)
Silver, Christopher, Unlikely Objects Mostly, produced by Christopher Silver for the Alasdair Gray Archive.
Images
Kate Copstick (1977-2000), oil on plastic mounted composite board, 53.5 x 47.5 cm
Reclining Nude (1955) ink on paper, 61 X 31 cm
Nude at Red Table (1954) ink and coloured paper collage, 61 x 32
Nude on Chair (1954), felt-tip pen and paper collage, 70 x 48 cm
Red Beth (1968), pencil drawing on red paper, 70 x 46 cm
Danielle: Black, Red, Silver, Wan (1972), ink, pencil and acrylic on paper, 47 x 58
May on Very Striped Coverlet (1984-2010) ink on brown paper, acrylic background 45 x 99 cm
May on Striped Coverlet (1984-2010), ink on brown paper, acrylic background 45 x 99 cm
May on Invisible Armchair (1984-2010), ink on brown paper, acrylic background 68.7 x 46.1 cm
Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983), book jacket
Something Leather (1990) book jacket
Bella Baxter
References
Bentley, Nick (2008) Contemporary British Fiction, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Gray, Alasdair (1992) ‘Poor Things film’ in folder ‘A’ dated 21st June to early July 1994, Acc 12557/5, courtesy National Library of Scotland
Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
Glendening, John (2016) ‘Education, Science and Secular Ethics in Alasdair Gray’s “Poor Things”’, Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 49(2), pp.75-93
Hughes, Kathryn, ‘Gender Roles in the 19th Century’, The British Library (The British Library, 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century> [accessed 26 June 2023]
‘Toil and Trouble: Witchcraft in Scotland’, The University of Aberdeen, 2021 <https://exhibitions.abdn.ac.uk/university-collections/admin/items/show/11107> [accessed 26 June 2023]
Images
Draft sketch of Lanark cover image (1982)
Inside the Box of Bone (1965), ink on scrapboard, 63.6 x 44.6 cm
May in White Bodice (1984-2010), ink on brown paper, acrylic background, 81 x 45.7 cm
Corruption is the Roman Whore (1965), collage, pencil, black Indian ink, pencil and white paint on cardboard 63.6 x 52.1 cm
Poor Things (1992) illustrations
Bella Caledonia (2007), pen and tinted inks on paper, 42 x 30 cm
Godwin Baxter
References
The Alasdair Gray Archive, Recording from Gray Day 2023 Live featuring Bernard MacLaverty, 25 February, Òran Mór, Glasgow
Gray, Alasdair, A Life in Pictures (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2010)
———, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 1992)
———, (2002) Poor Things, London: Bloomsbury Publishing
———, Something Leather (London: Cape, 1990)
Gray Tales, Day 4 (with Bernard McLaverty) (2022), filmed by Kevin Cameron with thanks to Creative Scotland and D8. Design by Neil McGuire, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEjePlPT_xY&t=3s
Gray Day 2023, Live Recording featuring Bernard MacLaverty, 25 February, Òran Mór, Glasgow (2023)
Images
Poor Things (1992), illustration of Godwin Baxter
Poor Things: Morag as Bella Baxter (1992), courtsey Kat Rolley and Morag McAlpine
Poor Things: Sketch of Bernard McLaverty (for character of Godwin Baxter) (1992)
Poor Things (1992) book jacket featuring Mopsy and Flopsy
Bella Caledonia
References
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 1992)
———, Why Scots Should Rule Scotland (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1997)
Smith, G. Gregory, Scottish Literature, Character & Influence (Folcroft, Pa: Folcroft Library Editions, 1972)
Stirling, Kirsten, Bella Caledonia: Woman, Nation, Text, Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature, 11 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008)
Images
Frieze Design for Oran Mor, Glasgow (2003), Framed gouache over printed base, 26 x 105 cm
Bella Caledonia (2007), pen and tinted inks on paper, 42 x 30 cm
Poor Things (1992), illustration of Bella Caledonia
Ten Tall Tales and True (1993) illustration
Why Scots Should Rule Scotland (1997) book jacket, 19.5 x 13 cm
Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983), hardback cover
Frontispieces for Hobbes Leviathan (1651), Walter Raleigh History of the World (1614); Francis Bacon Novum Organum (1620); Vesalius De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543); The British Museum
Sing as if You Live in the Early Days of a Better Nation (1996), pencil on paper, 32 x 25cm
Draft sketch of Lanark cover image (1982), courtesy AGA
Is Scotland a Possible Nation (2014), screenprint published by Glasgow Print Studio,69.3 x 53.5 cm
Genral Blessington
References
Coe, Jonathan, review of Gray’s Elegy, by Alasdair Gray, London Review of Books, 8 October 1992 <https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v14/n19/jonathan-coe/gray-s-elegy>
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
'BLESSINGTON, Sir Aubrey la Pole, 13th Bart.; cr. 1623; V.C., G.CB., G.C.M.G., J.P.; M.P (L.) Manchester North since 1878; b. Simla, 1827; e.s. of General Q. Blessington, Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Emilia e.d. of Bamforth de la Pole, Bart., Hogsnorton, Loamingshipe and Ballyknockmeup, Co. Cork; S. cousin 1861; m. Victoria Hattersley, Manchester locomotive mnfctr. Educ.: Rugby, Heidleberg, Sandhurst.' pp. 206-7
Iamges
Poor Things (1992) illustration of General Blessington
Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983) Illustration
Poor Things (1992) illustration of Blaydon Hattersely
Sketch of Sir Arthur Shots from McGrotty and Ludmilla (1990)
Corruption is the Roman Whore (1965)
Gray-the-Editor
References
Alasdair Gray at 80: Under the Helmet, dir. by Robert Kitts (BBC, 1964) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4N9Drwmcht5lN3GV2NlhgK1/alasdair-gray-at-80-under-the-helmet> [accessed 18 August 2022]
Alasdair Gray: Life in Progress, dir. by Kevin Cameron (BBC, 2014) <http://www.hopscotchfilms.co.uk/news/2020/2/25/alasdair-gray-life-in-progress> [accessed 16 January 2023]
Böhnke, Dietmar, Shades of Gray: Science Fiction, History and the Problem of Postmodernism in the Work of Alasdair Gray, Leipzig Explorations in Literature and Culture (Berlin; Madison, Wisconsin: Galda & Wilch, 2004)
Eco, Umberto, The Name of the Rose. (London: Vintage 2004 [1984])
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
Gray Day 2023, Live Recording featuring Rodge Glass, 25 February, Òran Mór, Glasgow (2023)
———, ‘Alasdair Gray Explains How His Love of Fable Never Left Him as He Grew Up’, The Scotsman, 2012 <https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/alasdair-gray-explains-how-his-love-fable-never-left-him-he-grew-2461695> [accessed 26 June 2022]
———, Lanark: A Life in 4 Books (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1981)
———, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 1992)
———, The Fall of Kelvin Walker (New York: G. Braziller, 1986)
———, Working Legs: A Play for People Without Them (Glasgow: Dog and Bone, 1997)
Hobsbaum, Philip, ‘Unreliable Narrators: Poor Things and Its Paradigms’, The Glasgow Review Issue 3, 1995 <https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/critical/aboutus/resources/stella/projects/glasgowreview/issue3-hobsbaum/> [accessed 10 December 2022]
Ibrahim, Lila, ‘The Deconstruction of (Para)Text in Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things’, Masters Essays, Masters Essays, 4 (2015) <https://collected.jcu.edu/mastersessays/4>
‘King Arthur: Fable, Fact and Fiction’, King Arthur: Fable, Fact and Fiction <https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/09/king-arthur-fable-fact-and-fiction.html> [accessed 14 January 2023]
Rhind, Neil, ‘Alasdair Gray and the Postmodern.’ (The University of Edinburgh, 2009) <chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/429719897.pdf>
Images
Self-Portrait by Gray from Letter to Robert Kitts (1955), pencil on graph paper, 21 x 15 cm
Gray as a Harmless old Josser (1990), ink on paper, 7.5 x 5 cm
Tree of Dunfermline History: Abbot's House Ceiling (1994-96), emulsion and oil on plaster At top frieze of faces above dado on south wall; below frieze of faces above north wall dado
Michael Donnelly: Elspeth's Assistant (1977), pencil on paper, 30 x 221 cm
The Fall of Kelvin Walker (1985), Penguin book jacket design (draft)
Working Legs: A Play for People Without Them illustration (1997)
McGrotty and Ludmilla (1990), central image Dog and Bone book jacket
The Fall of Kelvin Walker (1985), Canongate book jacket central image (blue)
The Fall of Kelvin Walker (1985), Penguin book jacket design (red)
Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man (2004) 36 x 27 cm
Symposium at Nightmare Abbey (1976-2005), oil, acrylic and Indian ink, 40 x 32 cm
Gray: Social Conscience
References
Alasdair Gray: Life in Progress, dir. by Kevin Cameron (BBC, 2014) <http://www.hopscotchfilms.co.uk/news/2020/2/25/alasdair-gray-life-in-progress> [accessed 16 January 2023]
Alasdair Gray Reads ‘Dictators’, 2007 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Zcca-JOr0> [accessed 16 January 2023]
Bernstein, Stephen, Alasdair Gray (Lewisburg, Pa.: London: Bucknell University Press; Associated University Presses, 1999)
Böhnke, Dietmar, Shades of Gray: Science Fiction, History and the Problem of Postmodernism in the Work of Alasdair Gray, Leipzig Explorations in Literature and Culture (Berlin; Madison, Wisconsin: Galda & Wilch, 2004)
Chris Morris on Satire in the Trump Era and His New Film ‘The Day Shall Come’, dir. by Channel 4 News, 2019 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liV5wKAihh8> [accessed 16 January 2023]
A Life in Progress, dir. by Kevin Cameron (BBC Scotland, 2014) <https://vimeo.com/ondemand/alasdairgray?fbclid=IwAR0SqJwIYtT3OVX9H5u2vpdubFC4RIX9AuOv4dukVtVK1oYdQPagS3YGPoI>
Coe, Jonathan, review of Gray’s Elegy, by Alasdair Gray, London Review of Books, 8 October 1992 <https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v14/n19/jonathan-coe/gray-s-elegy> [accessed 25 November 2022]
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
Gray Day 2023, Live Recording featuring Chitra Ramaswamy, 25 February, Òran Mór, Glasgow (2023)
Norberg, Jakob, The Brothers Grimm and the Making of German Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022) https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009063890
Leishmann, David. ‘”The Labours of Men of Genius”: Frankenstein, Fertility and the Female Scientist in the Work of Alasdair Gray’ in Andreolle, Donna Spalding and Molinari, Veronique (2011) Women and Science, 17th Century to Present: Pioneers, Activists and Protagonists. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; Newcastle.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1818). Frankenstein. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/41445/pg41445-images.html Last accessed 17/11/2022.
Images
Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man (2004), 36 x 27 cm
Òran Mór auditorium ceiling apse (2004), photographed by Mark Wild
Bella Caledonia (2007), pen and tinted inks on paper, 42 x 30 cm
Draft sketches of Lanark (1982)book jacket image
Lanark (1982), book jacket
Lanark (1982), book jacket from Canongate 2021 40th anniversary edition
Cartoon from Whitehill School Magazine (1950-52)
Anatomy Museum sketch (1954), ink on paper, 30 x 21cm
Cartoon from Whitehill School Magazine (1950-52)
The Book of Prefaces, interior title page (2002), 24x16 cm
Is Scotland a Possible Nation (2014), screenprint published by Glasgow Print Studio,69.3 x 53.5 cm
Hunterian Anatomy Lab
The University of Glasgow
References
MacPhail, Alex “Obituary Notice. The late Emeritus Professor John Cleland” (1925) in Journal of Anatomy 59(4), 448-456.
Images
Design for the proposed new building at Gilmorehill (1846) , architect John Baird, courtesy Glasgow University Archive Services
William Hunter's Forceps
References
Alottey, J. 2011. ‘English midwives’ responses to the medicalisation of childbirth (1671-1795),’
Midwifery. 27(4). pp.532-8.
Berridge, V. 1990. ‘Health and Medicine,’ in Thompson, F.M.L (ed) The Cambridge Social History of
Britain, 1750-1950. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
British Library. Man-Midwifery Dissected by Samuel W. Fores. [Online]. Available at: Man-Midwifery
Dissected by Samuel W Fores | The British Library (bl.uk)
Cody, Forman L. 2005. Birthing the Nation: Sex, Science and the Conception of Eighteenth Century
Britons. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Evenden, D. 2000. The Midwives of Seventeenth Century London. (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press).
Fife, E. 2004. ‘Gender and professionalism in eighteenth century midwifery,’ in Women’s Writing,
11(2). pp.185-200.
Lloyd, J. 2001. ‘The Languid Child and the Eighteenth century Man-Midwife,’ Bulletin of the History of
Medicine, 75(4). pp.641-679.
Sommers, S. 2011. ‘Transcending the Sexed Body: Reason, Sympathy, and ‘Thinking Machines’ in the
Debates over Male Midwifery,’ in Mangham A. and Depledge, G (eds) The Female Body in Medicine
and Literature. (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press). pp.89-106.
University of Glasgow Special Collections. Papers and Manuscripts from the Library of William
Hunter, 1718-1783, anatomist. [Online]. Available at: Papers and manuscripts from the library of
William Hunter, 1718-1783, anatomist - Archives Hub (jisc.ac.uk)
Williams, S. 2018. Unmarried Motherhood in the Metropolis, 1700-1850: Pregnancy, Poor Law and
Provision. (London, Palgrave Macmillan)
Wilson, A. 2002. ‘William Hunter and the varieties of man-midwifery,’ in Porter, R; Bynum, W.F (eds)
William Hunter and the Eighteenth Century Medical World. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
pp.343-371.
Images
Midwifery forceps with leather covered handles and small paper label reading W.Hunter 5"" (description from Teacher 1900 catalogue), bequeathed by Dr William Hunter (1783), GLAHM:122961, collection Anatomy/Pathology, courtesy The Hunterian Museum
The Child in the Womb in its Natural Situation, cast, plaster; description from Marshall 1970, the casts represent different stages of dissection of the first subject in Hunter’s atlas (1774), a woman who died suddenly in the 9th month of pregnancy in 1750, Bequeathed by Dr William Hunter (1783), GLAHM:125630. Collection: Anatomy/Pathology, courtesy The Hunterian Museum
James Jeffray's Chair
References
Mackenzie, Peter “The case of Matthew Clydesdale the murderer - extra-ordinary scene in the College of Glasgow”, Old Reminiscences of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, Vol.2, 490-500 (1865), Glasgow
Images
Regency era chair supposedly from the office of James Jeffray. Anatomy Department legend tells that in 1818 this chair was used to hold the body of executed murderer Matthew Clydesdale during the galvanism experiments conducted by Jeffray and Dr Andrew Ure. However, this is very unlikely as reports and drawings from the event all show the body on a table which would have been much more practical, donated by Mrs Elinor J. Robertson (1967), GLAHM:167607, courtesy The Hunterian Museum
William MacEwen, Section of the Brain
References
Cohen, A. R. (2023) ‘William Macewen and the First Documented Successful Resection of a Brain Tumor’, Child's Nervous System [online] https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-023-05825-3
Ellis, H. (2020) ‘Sir William Macewen and the First Successful Excision of an Intracranial Tumour’, Journal of Perioperative Practice 30 (9): 283–284.
Finger, S. (2010) ‘The birth of localization theory’, in: Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol. 95 (3rd series) – History of Neurology, S. Finger, F. Boller and K.L. Tyler (eds.). Elsevier, 117–128.
Finger, S. and Stone, J. L. (2010) ‘Landmarks of surgical neurology and the interplay of disciplines’, in: Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol. 95 (3rd series) - History of Neurology, S. Finger, F. Boller and K.L. Tyler (eds.). Elsevier, 189–202.
Macewen, W. (1879) ‘Cranial tumour’, Glasgow Medical Journal 12: 210–12.
Macewen, W. (1881) ‘Intracranial lesions: illustrating some points in connection with the localization of cerebral affections and the advantages of antiseptic trephining - tumor of the dura mater’, Nature 2(541–543): 581–583.
Macewen, W. (1888a) ‘An address on the surgery of the brain and spinal cord’, British Medical Journal 2(1441): 302–309.
Macewen, W. (1888b) List of some of the contributions to surgical literature by William Macewen, Lecturer on Surgery, Glasgow Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, and Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow: with comments by the medical press, and other published statements by surgeons on the ideas advanced and the work done by him. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. Available at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hsjr3vq6
Macewen, W. (1893a) Pyogenic Infectious Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. Available at: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zvcx8z8p
Macewen, W. (1893b) Atlas of Head Sections. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. Available at: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qwbpysj9
Macmillan, M. (2004) ‘Localisation and William Macewen’s Early Brain Surgery. Part I: the Controversy’, Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 13(4): 297–325.
Macmillan, M. (2005) ‘Localisation and William Macewen's Early Brain Surgery. Part II: The Cases’, Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 14(1): 24–56.
Images
Plaster cast of sagittal section of whole brain to demonstrate distribution of nerve elements, description from Burton and Marshall 1962 catalogue, donated by Sir William MacEwen (1916-1924), GLAHM:122580, collection: Anatomy/Pathology, courtesy The Hunterian Museum
Illustrations
References
Gray Alasdair. Poor Things (1992), London: Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 2002
Gray, Alasdair. La littérature ou le refus de l’amnésie, Literature against Amnesia (transl. Marie-Odile Pittin-Hédon), Avignon: Éditions Universitaires d'Avignon, 2010
Louvel, Liliane. “Itching Etching: Fooling the Eye or An Anatomy of Gray’s Optical Illusions and Intermedial Apparatus”, in Alasdair Gray: Ink for Worlds (ed. Camille Manfredi), Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, p. 181-203
Images
Poor Things (1992) illustrations
Poor Things (1992) pp.145-150
Intertexts
References
Belloc, Hilaire, ‘The Modern Traveller’, Project Gutenberg Ebook of The Modern Traveller, 2020 <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61521/61521-h/61521-h.htm> [accessed 16 January 2023]
Boswell, James, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D. (Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1999)
Brontë, Emily, Wuthering Heights, ed. by Ian Jack and John W. Bugg (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020)
Bynum, W. F., and Roy Porter, eds., Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine (London; New York: Routledge, 1993)
Carroll, Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, ed. by Hugh Haughton (London: Penguin, 2003)
Dante, The Comedy of Dante Alighieri (London: Penguin Books, 1991)
Darwin, Charles, On the Origin of Species, ed. by Gillian Beer, Oxford World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Dawood, N. J., ed., Tales from the Thousand and One Nights (Harmondsworth, Eng., Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1973)
Dickens, Charles, Dombey and Son, ed. by Andrew Sanders (London; New York: Penguin Books, 2002)
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, The Karamazov Brothers, trans. by Ignat Avsey (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (London: Penguin, 2011)
Gray, Alasdair, Lanark: A Life in 4 Books (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1981)
———, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 1992)
Gray Tales, Erratum (with Sorcha Dallas), dir. by Alasdair Gray Archive and Kevin Cameron, 2022 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua7Oy52BGdw> [accessed 14 January 2023]
Haggard, H. Rider, She: A History of Adventure, ed. by Patrick Brantlinger (London; New York: Penguin Books, 2001)
Hogg, James, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, ed. by Ian Duncan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)
Hugo, Victor, Les Misérables, ed. by Norman Denny (London: Penguin Books, 1982)
Lamb, Charles, and Mary Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare, Reprint (London: Penguin Classics, 2012)
Lucretius, Lucretius: On the Nature of Things, ed. by John Godwin, Ancients in Action (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 2004)
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, The Coming Race (Cheltenham: The History Press, 1995)
MacDiarmid, Hugh, The Company I’ve Kept (California: University of California Press, 1967)
Malthus, Thomas Robert, An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings, ed. by Robert J. Mayhew (london: Penguin Books, 2015)
McNeill, Marion, The Scots Kitchen (Glasgow: Blackie & Sons, 1963)
Potter, Beatrix, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, 100th Anniversary (London: Warne, 2002)
The Alasdair Gray Archive, Recording from Gray Day 2023 Live featuring Chitra Ramaswamy, 25 February, Òran Mór, Glasgow
Rhind, Neil, ‘Alasdair Gray and the Postmodern.’ (The University of Edinburgh, 2009) <chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/429719897.pdf>
Scott, Walter, Old Mortality, ed. by Jane Stevenson and Peter Davidson, The World’s Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993)
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet, ed. by Paul Prescott and Alan Sinfield (London: Penguin Books, 2015)
Shaw, Bernard, Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts, ed. by Dan H. Laurence and Nicholas Grene (London: Penguin Books, 2003)
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Frankenstein, ed. by Charlotte Gordon and Charles E. Robinson (New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2018)
Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations: Books I-III, ed. by Andrew Skinner (London: Penguin, 1999)
Stevenson, Robert Louis, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales, ed. by Roger Luckhurst (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, ed. by Maurice Hindle (London; New York: Penguin Books, 2003)
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ed. by Jean Fagan Yellin (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Tennyson, Alfred, ‘“The Eagle”’, The Poetry Foundation (Poetry Foundation, 2023), https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45322/the-eagle-56d224c9a41d1> [accessed 14 January 2023]
Wells, H. G., The War in the Air: And Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared While It Lasted, ed. by Patrick Parrinder and Jay Winter (London: Penguin Books, 2005)
Wilkinson, George Theodore, The Newgate Calendar (London: Cardinal, 1991)
Images
Poor Things, illustration portraying Victoria McCandless (1992)
Every Short Story by Alasdair Gray 1951-2012, illustration (2012)
Ten Tall Tales and True, pictorial initial capital B (1993)
Ten Tall Tales and True, pictorial initial capital C (1993)
Something Leather, Initial capital D portraying Morag McAlpine (1990)
Ten Tall Tales and True (1993), pictorial initial capital E
Anatomy Museum sketch (1954)
Something Leather, Initial capital H (1990)
A Charm Against Serpents (1962)
Lanark, title page (2014)
Ten Tall Tales and True, pictorial initial capital M (1993)
Something Leather, Initial capital O portraying John Purser (1990)
Something Leather, Initial capital P portraying Bethsy Gray (1990)
Something Leather, Initial capital S portraying Anita Manning (1990)
Ten Tall Tales and True, pictorial initial capital T (1993)
Every Short Story by Alasdair Gray 1951-2012, illustration (2012);
A Scent of Water by Carl MacDougall, Pictorial initial W (1975)
A Charm Against Serpents (1962) Oil and wash on chipboard, in nine parts
Anatomy Museum sketch (1954) ink on paper, 30 x 21cm
Archiebald McCandless
References
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (radio play); s1 Parts 1&2 / s2 Parts 3&4 / cassette label: 'STORYLINE: POOR THINGS', reader: Jimmy Chisholm, Acc. 13416/74, National Library of Scotland, digitized by the 'Collections on Tape' team at Glasgow Museums; date unknown
Images
Portrait of Archibald McCandless from Poor Things (1992) illustration
Poor Things (1992) illustrations
Victoria McCandless
References
Ghasedi, Sarah J. "The Authority of Anonymity: Sophia Jex-Blake’s Scotsman Leaders and the Politics of Self-Citation." Victorian Periodicals Review, vol. 54 no. 4, 2021, p. 583-603. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/vpr.2021.0045.
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (radio play); s1 Parts 1&2 / s2 Parts 3&4 / cassette label: 'STORYLINE: POOR THINGS’, reader Jimmy Chisholm, Acc. 13416/74, National Library of Scotland, digitized by the 'Collections on Tape' team at Glasgow Museums; date unknown
Jex-Blake, Sophia, Medical Women: A Thesis and a History (Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier, 1886) <https://wellcomecollection.org/works/cxttbhke> [accessed 26 June 2023]
Poet, Frances, Sophia (2021) dir Janys Chambers; contributors Muireann Kelly, Maryam Hamidi, Clare Perkins, Madeleine Worrall; prod The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and Pitlochry Festival Theatre in association with Naked Productions Ltd.
Twynholm, Scott Piano Lumineuse (2021); album Tekstura; Blurred; music written and produced by Scott Twynholm; Alice Allen cello; Fiona Brice violin and viola; Scott Twynholm piano, accordion, organ and field recordings; strings recorded by Tony Doogan at Castle of Doom Recording Studios, Glasgow, Scotland.
Images
Poor Things (1992) illustrations
Poor Things Tour of Glasgow
References
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
Images
The City: Version Two (1951) also known as Two Hills, gouache, pen and ink on paper (1951), 42 x 30
The City: Version One (1950), gouache on paper, 42 x 30cm (in Character Gallery)
Sketch of view near Glasgow Cathedral (c.1961) in Found Ledger
Cowcaddens Streetscape in the Fifties (1964), oil on hardboard, 121.5 x 224 cm
Synopsis
References
Gray, Alasdair, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 2002)
———, A Life in Pictures (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2010)
Hoare, Natasha, and Alasdair Gray, ‘Alasdair Gray Reading Between the Lines: On Lust, Lanark and a Life in Letters’, Extra Extra Magazine <https://extraextramagazine.com/talk/alasdair-gray-reading-between-the-lines-on-lust-lanark-and-a-life-in-letters/> [accessed 29 April 2023]
Images
Poor Things (1992) book jacket (framed)
Poor Things (1992) illustrations
Poor Things (1992) frontmatter
Duncan Wedderburn
References
Diamond-Nigh, Lynne. "Gray's Anatomy: When Words and Images Collide." The Review of Contemporary Fiction 15.2 (1995)
Gray, Alasdair, 1982, Janine: Gray Alasdair (London: Jonathan Cape, 1984)
———, A Life in Pictures (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2010)
———, Lanark: A Life in 4 Books (Edinburgh: Canongate, 1981)
———, Poor Things (London: Bloomsbury, 1992)
Gray Day 2023, Live Recording featuring Michael Pedersen, 25 February, Òran Mór, Glasgow (2023)
Gray Tales, Day 3, dir. by Kevin Cameron, 2022 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssZoaRxdwc4>
Gray Tales, Day 7, dir. by Kevin Cameron, 2022 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1AI4FnaCs>
Images
Poor Things (1992), illustration of Duncan Wedderburn
Ink drawing for chapter 15 of the novel Poor Things; p. 151 from the novel showing how the drawing was used; reproduction of hand written note explaining what the drawing is and how it was made, ink on paper (1990-92), GLAHA:51831, Glasgow University Special Collections
Poor Things (1992) pp.145-150
Janine 1982 (1984), chapter 12, p183-185
Lanark (1981) p.492 (Epilogue)
Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983) Illustration
Prometheus (2014) screenprint published by Glasgow Print Studio, 93.5 x 71.6 cm
Portrait of Sorcha Dallas (2009), ink on paper, 29.5 x 20.8