Swing Hammer Swing! [inscribed to Alasdair Gray]

Bound in the publisher’s illustrated card wrappers, about very good and inscribed on the first endpaper: ‘With fondest regards, Jeff Torrington 10-8-92’. Gray seems to have read the first two thirds of the book enthusiastically, leaving fold marks on the spine and a damp stain across the top half of the first few dozen pages. Chapter 18 is annotated with Gray objecting to several passages but endorsing ‘I shrugged. “Things are a wee bit bogged doon at the moment.”’ Laid in a scrap of paper with a telephone number and the name of the Paisley poet Margaret Fulton Cook, apparently in Gray’s hand. Provenance: from the recent dispersal sale of Alasdair Gray’s library.

Alasdair Gray (1934-2019) was acknowledged as one of the most innovative figures in Scottish literature and culture. A painter, novelist, playwright, poet and editor, Gray often combined his diverse artistic talents within single works to challenge existing forms. The British Council’s biography of him describes how ‘Blending satire and tragedy, realism and fantasy, his work has been credited with spurring a renaissance in Scottish literature (Gray’s success anticipates that of James Kelman, Jeff Torrington and Irvine Welsh).’