The Quest for Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Hardcover)

Mackintosh did not leave copious notes or diaries for the benefit of his future biographers and therefore Cairney just invents situations and attributes thoughts and feelings to his main characters on the barest of facts. For example he states CRM was inconsolable when his mother died, he may well have been but given he never recorded this, it is pure supposition. Given it has been 30 years in the making, the book is poorly researched, contains major inaccuracies and omits many key facts. Although not a Mackintosh expert I am CRM's great great niece and have obtained further knowledge from being an active member of the CRM society. There was some information that I had not come across before, but it was impossible to give this any validity given the number of mistakes that were immediately obvious.

These are too many to list but to give a few examples Cairney says that when CRM went to art school, his sister Nancy wanted to be an artist too. She did tell Thomas Howarth this (who wrote the first major book on CRM in 1952) but when CRM started at the Glasgow School of Art in 1882 Nancy had not been born. Cairney is so full of his narrative that in February1891 he has CRM giving a lecture and in March 1891 he has jumped on a train to Italy, omitting to say that CRM had won the Alexander Thompson Travelling Scholarship for that year. Cairney describes CRM's design for Talwyn Morris's gravestone a slender structure, which it certainly isn't which raises the question has he ever seen it?

Cairney has been poorly served by his editors at Luath press who should have known that Walberswick is in Suffolk and therefore not just down the coast from Holy Island and that although CRM's mother died in December 1885, this was not the day before CRM's birthday as he was born in June.

Although this book states that it is determined to find Mackintosh the man there is little about his art or his relationship with his wife Margaret McDonald who played a major role in his art and life. There is no summary or conclusion and CRM remains just an enigma after reading this book as he has always been.

Given it has been 30 years in the making, the book is poorly researched, contains major inaccuracies and omits many key facts. I know as I am CRM's great great niece and have obtained further knowledge from being an active member of the CRM society. To give a couple of examples Cairney says that when CRM went to art school, his sister Nancy wanted to be an artist too. She did tell Thomas Howarth this (who wrote the first major book on CRM in 1952) but when CRM started at the Glasgow School of Art in 1882 Nancy had not been born. Cairney is so full of his narrative that in February1891 he has CRM giving a lecture and in March 1891 he has jumped on a train to Italy, omitting to say that CRM had won the Alexander Thompson Travelling Scholarship for that year.

Cairney has been poorly served by his editors at Luath press who should have known that Walberswick is in Suffolk and therefore not just down the coast from Holy Island and that although CRM's mother died in December 1885, this was not the day before CRM's birthday as he was born in June.

Although this book states that it is determined to find Mackintosh the man there is little about his art or his relationship with his wife Margaret McDonald who played a major role in his art and life. There is no summary or conclusion and CRM remains just an enigma after reading this book as he has always been.