Alasdair Gray

Admittedly, the biggest reason for putting the man Will Self once describes as a ‘little grey deity’ on our Hot 100 list this year wasn’t something he himself had done. However, Rodge Glass’ memoir/biography Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography, simply served to remind us of the continued genius of one of our great national assets.

Following the release of Old Men In Love, his first novel since 1996, in late 2007, interest in the writer-poet-playwright-painter and local hero has rocketed back up again. Old Men was nominated for the inaugural Claire Maclean Prize at this year’s Aye Write festival. Gray also published Fleck, his Scottish Faust, early this summer, and has been performing it all over the country, often with his biographer taking the part of God.

There was also a renaissance in interest in Gray the artist this year. One of the biggest exhibitions of this year’s Glasgow International was Gray’s Sorcha Dallas show of never-before-seen paintings.