Book description
The Billy Connolly of the GÃ idhealtachd' Â- Calum Macdonald,
Runrig 'Utterly compelling' - BBC Radio Scotland 'It is a rewarding,
if sometimes harrowing journey for the reader as Maclean wrestles with
his demons and his identity amid  cultural schizophreniaâ . One is
left feeling a deal of sympathy for this most talented, fascinating
and charismatic man; lamenting the waste of it all' - Sunday Herald A
comedian, singer, composer, musician, linguist, actor, author and a
favourite of Sean Connery and Billy Connolly's, Norman MacLean is a
living legend in the Gaelic world and a household name across the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Yet for all his creative genius
Norman MacLean is virtually anonymous outside this ribbon of northern
Scotland. His career has been etched with enormous highs and lows Â- a
reflection of the turmoil of his private life, where a lifelong battle
with alcohol has had a crippling effect on everything that he has
touched, and which has arguably prevented him from achieving the
global recognition that his undoubted talent so merited. In The
Leper's Bell, an erudite, analytical and frank autobiography of this
wonderful, unique, but ultimately little-known star, Norman MacLean
reveals the man behind the comedy and the crippling horrors of
alcoholism. It is in turns tragic and uplifting, devastating and
hilarious, elegant and heartbreaking, and one of the most compelling
and moving memoirs to appear in recent years.
Born in 1936, Norman Maclean was educated at school and university in
Glasgow, before going on to teach all over the country. He garnered much
fame after winning two Gold Medals at the National Mod - for poetry and
singing - in the same year, 1967, the only person ever to do so. Shortly
afterwards he began a career, as he would say himself, as a clown, and
it is in that role, and that of a musician, that he is still best-known
today.
