A to Z

  • E is for Easterhouse

    When you mention Easterhouse to most people, an image of deprivation, unemployment, gang warfare, mugging, glue-sniffing and drugs is what will often spring to mind. Well, try living there. I lived in the ‘Greater Area of Easterhouse’ – I won’t talk about exactly where today or I’ll have nothing to write about for ‘Q.’ Gang…

  • D is for Doon The Watter

    There can’t be any schoolchildren of my generation who don’t remember a school day trip ‘doon the watter’ on the Waverly paddle steamer. We would board at Broomielaw with our school-provided packed lunch (white bread sandwiches, weak orange juice and a Penguin biscuit) and, depending on the weather, jostle for a place above or below…

  • C is for Closes

    In Glasgow, a close is a communal stairwell of a tenement off which individual flats may be accessed. The best kind of close was the ‘wally (to rhyme with galley) close’. These were closes whose walls were tiled with glossy ceramic tiles, usually in dark reds and greens, and often with a decorative tile border…

  • B is for Barlinnie

    We didn’t live too far from Barlinnie prison in Glasgow. There was always someone whose “da had gone up to the big hoose” while the younger members of the family went to the local borstal. The prison was a big part of east end life. We even had a wee song we used to sing…

  • A is for Annette

    Annette was a popular name in the 50s and 60s thanks to the pre-Britney Disney Princess Annette Funicello. Mum says I was named after the actress, dad said it was after his sister, Annie. Whichever was true, my middle name came from a character on mum’s favourite TV show, “77 Sunset Strip” called Suzanne Fabray…