Book description
Perhaps the first Gaelic black comedy' - John Murray, RTE Radio 1
'Norman is a 24-carat comedy jewel that just keeps sparkling' - Bruce
Morton, BBC Radio Scotland 'Norman MacLean is the Billy Connolly of
the Gaidhealtachd' - Calum MacDonald, Runrig 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. Based in the Uists in the Outer Hebrides, with side
trips to Glasgow, Hamburg and Amsterdam, this dotty adventure embraces
frustrated sex, drugs, eightsome reels and a memorable cast of oddball
characters: three inept would-be criminals, a demented care-home
resident, an ex-communicant of the Free Church of Scotland who
moonlights as an enforcer, a pair of Russian weight-lifters who raise
ostriches by day and mud-wrestle by night, and a formidable woman
lawyer determined to cleanse the island of wrongdoing before HM The
Queen arrives on her annual visit. Something akin to a mad Gaelic
version of The Sopranos as directed by the Coen Brothers, this novella
is a masterclass of understatement, pitch-perfect dialogue and
confident narration.
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.
