Night Song of the Last Tram: A Glasgow Childhood [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

'A grace and assurance that turn everyday episodes into the stuff of romance.' -- Times Literary Supplement 20050617 'poignant and funny... a vivid and humorous picture of post-war Glasgow.' -- Evening Times 20050205 'Funny and poignant ... will stir many memories.' -- Sunday Post 20050515 'It's a beauty ... the best book I've read in years.' -- Dorset Echo 20050423 'Exquisite ... a beautiful paean' -- Sunday Times 'A well-written slice of social history delivered directly by an eyewitness' -- Independent on Sunday Consider for instance "The Great Midden-raking Expedition", the sort of thing millions of Winnie-the-Pooh fans would be familiar with if Christopher Robin had been a Glaswegian ... Night Song of the Last Tram is a simply written book and all the better for it ... It recreates stunningly clear memories of a Glasgow childhood ... At the age of 66, Robert Douglas has written his first book - I cannot believe it will be his last. -- Daily Mail, Scotland 20050318 Robert Douglas looks back to his Glasgow childhood and his experiences, the misery (and the laughter) pouring out on every page. The portrait of his mother is beautifully done ... and her loss (through breast cancer) when he was still very young is heartbreaking: it brings tears to my eyes now just writing about it. Douglas has real skill in conveying experience and his use of the Glasgow vernacular lends an extra poetry to the writing. A quite exceptional autobiography. -- Publishing News, Book of the Month, Novembe 20050318 'His prose is direct, pacy, uncluttered ... engaging, deftly written and honestly remembered' -- Herald 20050312 'Told with a direct, unsentimental honesty ... a vividness that makes them real. This is a remarkable, deeply moving autobiography.' -- Cumberland Times 20050312 'It is as a record of the old Glasgow spirit that this book is especially worthwhile.' -- Sunday Herald 20050410 'A heartwarming, heartbreaking tale of a young boy's struggle to become a man.' -- Our Time, Cambridge 20050405 'It has been a while since a book has reduced me to both tears of laughter and sympathy, but Robert Douglas managed it with Night Song of the Last Tram.' -- Journal, Newcastle 20050322 'Wonderful ... vivid.' -- Stockport Express 20050316 'The descriptions of streets and smells and childhood feelings ... come from some little fire that's never gone out in Douglas' mind ... His prose is direct, pacy, uncluttered ... engaging, deftly written and honestly remembered.' -- Herald 20050316

A quite exceptional autobiography.

He thanks the teachers of a Northumberland writers' group - We should, too.

'Exquisite ... a beautiful paean'

'A well-written slice of social history delivered directly by an eyewitness'

'His prose is direct, pacy, uncluttered ... engaging, deftly written and honestly remembered'

'Told with a direct, unsentimental honesty ... a vividness that makes them real. This is a remarkable, deeply moving autobiography.'

'Wonderful ... vivid.'

'It is as a record of the old Glasgow spirit that this book is especially worthwhile.'

'A heartwarming, heartbreaking tale of a young boy's struggle to become a man.'

A wonderfully colourful and deeply poignant memoir of growing up in a 'single end' - one room in a Glasgow tenement - during and immediately after the Second World War. Although young Robert Douglas's life was blighted by the cruel if sporadic presence of his father, it was equally blessed by the love of his mother, Janet. While the story of their life together is in some ways very sad, it is also filled with humorous and happy memories. Night Song of the Last Tram is a superb evocation of childhood and of a Glasgow of trams and tenements that has long since disappeared.

A hugely affecting blend of painful recollection and rich nostalgia, and a brilliant evocation of post-war Glasgow, Night Song of the Last Tram is set to be this year's mega-selling childhood memoir.

If you were enthralled by Angela's Ashes and charmed by The Road to Nab End, you won't be able to resist Night Song of the Last Tram.

'If my father had been killed in North Africa or Italy during the Second World War, I know that for the rest of my life I would have looked at the few photographs of him and mourned our lost relationship. Unfortunately, he survived and came home.'

Thus begins a wonderfully colourful and deeply poignant memoir of growing up in a 'single end' - one room in a Glasgow tenement - during and immediately after the Second World War. Although young Robert Douglas's life was blighted by the cruel if sporadic presence of his father, it was equally blessed by the love of his mother, Janet. While the story of their life together is in some ways very sad, it is also filled with humorous and happy memories. Night Song of the Last Tram is a superb evocation of childhood and of a Glasgow of trams and tenements that has long since disappeared.

Now retired, Robert Douglas worked as a prison officer and as an electricity chargehand. Although he has lived in Northumberland for many years, he says you can take the boy out of Glasgow, but you'll never take Glasgow out of the boy.

It wasn't long until the steamy warmth, creaking woodwork and gentle swaying, allied to Ma's arm around me, all conspired to send me to sleep. But seconds later I was shaken to a heavy-eyed wakefulness.

"C'mon son, it's our stop next!" During those few seconds the tram had travelled halfway across the city! How did they do that?