Book description
 Masterly ... the only work of realistic literary art to show what
is happening to most of the British people here and now.' Â- Alasdair
Gray  With Kelman, and with other writers such as Alasdair Gray, the
great city of Glasgow and urban Scotland in general are finding the
literary voices they deserve.' Â- British Book News  A remarkable
book ... intelligent, exploratory and sometimes very touching.' Â-
Times Literary Supplement Living in a bedsit, just coping with the
boredom of being a busconductor, and fully aware that his plans to
emigrate to Australia won't come to anything, Robert Hines is a young
Glaswegian leading a pretty drab life. There are compensations,
however, in his wife and child, and his eccentric, anarchic
imagination. Kelman provides a brilliantly executed, uncompromising
slice of Glasgow life Â- an intelligent, funny and humane novel. First
published by Polygon in 1984.
James Kelman was born in Glasgow in 1946. After leaving school at 15
he worked in the printing industry and as a bus driver. In 1971 he
attended creative writing night classes and in 1973 an American company
published his first collection of short stories, An Old Pub Near The
Angel. Greyhound for Breakfast won the 1987 Cheltenham Prize; A
Disaffection won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted
for the Booker Prize; How late it was, how late won the 1994 Booker
Prize amidst a storm of controversy. He has also written many plays for
stage and radio. He lives in Glasgow with his wife and family.
