William McIlvanney

**William McIlvanney** (25 November 1936 – 5 December 2015) wis a Scots novelist, short story scriever, an makar. He wis kent as **Gus** by friends and acquaintances. McIlvanney wis a champion o gritty yet poetic leiteratur; his warks *Laidlaw*, *The Papers of Tony Veitch*, an *Walking Wounded* is aa weel-kent for their shawin o Glesga in the 1970s. He is regairdit as "the faither o *Tartan Noir*" an as Scotland's Camus.

## Biography
McIlvanney wis born in Kilmarnock on 25 November 1936, the youngest o fower bairns o an umwhile miner, an went tae Kilmarnock Academy. He went on tae study Inglis at Glesga University an graduatit wi ae MA in 1960. McIlvanney then wirkit as ae Inglis dominie til 1975, whan he quit as assistant heiddominie at Greenwood Academy tae mak forrit wi his writin career. His aulder brither wis the sports jurnalist Hugh McIlvanney. His son, Liam McIlvanney, is a crime writer as weel.

As weel as his leiteratur, McIlvanney wrate on a reglar basis for newspapers, an wis a writer an narrator o the BBC Scotland fitba documentary *Only a Game?* in 1986.

McIlvanney haudit ontae his strang socialist views ootthrouh his life. Lik ithers fae his backgrund in Scotland, he wis strangly agin Thatcherism. Later he becam disappyntit bi the shift o Labour unner Tony Blair an bi 2014 he felt,  hesitantly, that Scottish independence micht be the best poleitical solution.

William McIlvanney deet on 5 December 2015 aged 79, efter a wee spell o illness. On hearin o his daith, sindry public figures, siclik Nicola Sturgeon, Ian Rankin and Irvine Welsh, gied mense notin baith his inspirational writin and his likeable an gentlemanly personality. The Telegraph's obituary wrate: "Many authors are admired. Many are respected. Few are loved as he was, for what they are as well as for what they have written."

## Writin
His first buik, *Remedy is None*, wis furthset in 1966  an won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1967.  *Docherty* (1975), anent ae miner that's courage an endurance is pit tae the test durin the depression, won the Whitbread Novel Award.

*The Big Man* (1985) is the story o Dan Scoular, an unemployed man that turns tae bare-knuckle fechtin  tae mak thrift. Baith nuvels hae typical McIlvanney chairacters – teucht, aft violent, men lockit in a fecht wi their ain nature an upbringin.  The nuvel wis turnt intae ae film in 1990 directit by David Leland, starrin Liam Neeson, an kythin Billy Connolly.

His novel, *The Kiln* (1996) won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award.

## Reviews

* Gifford, Douglas (1976), review of *Docherty*, in Burnett, Ray (ed.), *Calgagus* No. 3, pp.&nbsp;58 & 59, 
* Aitchison, James (1983), review of *The Papers of Tony Veitch*, in Lindsay, Maurice (ed.), *The Scottish Review: Arts and Environment* 31, August 1983, pp.&nbsp;60 – 62, 

## Prizes an awairds

* 1967 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for *Remedy is None*
* 1968 Scottish Arts Council Book Award for *A Gift from Nessus*
* 1975 Scottish Arts Council Book Award for *Docherty*
* 1975 Whitbread Award, for Best Novel for *Docherty*
* 1977 Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction for *Laidlaw*
* 1983 Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction for *The Papers of Tony Veitch*
* 1990 Glasgow Herald People's Prize for *Walking Wounded*
* 1990 BAFTA (screen adaptation): "Dreaming"
* 1992 Glasgow Herald People's Prize for *Strange Loyalties*
* 1992 Scottish Arts Council awards for *Surviving the Shipwreck* and *Strange Loyalties*
* 1996 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award for *The Kiln*
* 2013 Saltire Society Fletcher of Saltoun Award 2013 for "outstanding contribution to Scotland's life and culture"
* 2013 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for writing
* 2016 University of Glasgow posthumously awairdit him with an honorary doctorate.

## References

## Fremmit airtins

* Writer's website at www.williammcilvanney.com
* profile  on Canongate Publishing website
* Natural Loyalties: The Work of William McIlvanney : Association for Scottish Literary Studies
* William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw Novels : Association for Scottish Literary Studies
* William McIlvanney : The Write Stuff, National Library of Scotland

### References tae reviews o warks

* http://www.fask.uni-mainz.de/inst/ssc/ssn29-30.html#Vol.%2028  McLuckie, Craig. "Researching McIlvanney. A Critical and Bibliographic Introduction", *Scottish Studies International* 28 (Scottish Studies Centre of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz in Germersheim), 1999.
* Newton, Ken. "William McIlvanney": Literary Encyclopedia
* 
* http://webpages.ull.es/users/rceing/Back.html#No.45,%20Noviembre%202002  McLuckie, Craig. "Postcolonial Resistance: Class, Gender and Race in McIlvanney's *The Big Man*," *Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses* (RCEI) 2002; 45: 151–67.
* http://webpages.ull.es/users/rceing/Back.html#41  McLuckie, Craig. "William McIlvanney and the Provocative Witness: Resistance in the 'Laidlaw' Trilogy," *Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses* (RCEI) 2000 Nov; 41: 87-101.