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The Real Gorbals Story: True Tales from Glasgow's Meanest Streets
 
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The Real Gorbals Story: True Tales from Glasgow's Meanest Streets (Paperback)

by Colin Macfarlane (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Mainstream Publishing (6 Sep 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1845962079
  • ISBN-13: 978-1845962074
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 17,965 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Earth Sciences > Biogeography
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    #7 in  Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Scotland

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Product Description

Product Description

Colin MacFarlane was born in the Gorbals in the 1950s, 20 years after the publication of No Mean City, the classic novel about pre-war life in what was once Glasgow's most deprived district. He lived in the same street as its fictional 'razor king', Johnnie Stark, and subsequently realised that a lot of the old characters represented in the book were still around as late as the 1960s. Men still wore bunnets and played pitch and toss; women still wore headscarves and treated the steamie as their social club. The razor gangs were running amok once again, human waste ran down the tenement stairs, and filth, violence, crime, rats, poverty and drunkenness abounded, just like they did in No Mean City. MacFarlane witnessed the last days of the old Gorbals as a major regeneration programme, begun in 1961, was implemented, and, as a street boy, he had a unique insight into a once great community in rapid decline. He witnessed drunken fights, gang battles, police corruption and even the occasional stabbing, slashing and murder. But the Gorbals had another side: one where ordinary hard-working people were trying to survive in what was arguably once the most notorious area in the world. In this engrossing new book, MacFarlane reveals what it was really like to live in the old Gorbals.


About the Author

Colin MacFarlane is a journalist and has written for a number of national newspapers, including Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday Times, the Scottish Sun and the Daily Record. He lives in Pontypridd, Wales.

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars It's Real Alright, 21 Jun 2008
By Tomvox (Llanelli, Wales) - See all my reviews
Colin has captured the genuine feel of what may have been a physically run-down area but what the people turned into a tightly-knit community. To anyone growing up in 1950's or early 1960's Glasgow the Gorbals was an area to be avoided. These infamous slums however had a heart - the people of The Gorbals. Colin gives voice to how people had a strong community spirit that survived the 1960's redevelopment of the area and why even today people will be proud to say "Ah'm fae the Gorbals". I understand he is producing a follow-up to come out in late 2008 recounting his own change from a Gorbals Boy to a cosmopolitan man. I look forward to reading it knowing that you cannot take the Gorbals out of the boy (and I'm sure he wouldn't want it any other way).
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely read about the old Gorbals, 18 Dec 2007
By desperate dan (hoganfield loch) - See all my reviews
Colin Macfarlane's life story The Real Gorbals Story is a welcome addition to all that has been written about the place before. Unlike No Mean City this book is full of humour and wit that captures the optimism of the Gorbals people. I read it on the beach abroad but even reading it there I could feel the atmosphere of the place overcoming me. It's a must buy for all those who have an interest in the neighbourhood and all its good, bad and ugly characters.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS A VERY GOOD READ, FULL OF PATTER, ACTION , 11 Dec 2007


Glasgow's Gorbals had quite a reputation in the 1960s as arguably one of the darkest, most frightening and dangerous places in the world.

Colin MacFarlane - like television presenter Lorraine Kelly and writers Jimmy Boyle and Ralph Glasser - is a child of the Gorbals. Born in the 1950s, he witnessed the last days of the old Gorbals as a major regeneration programme began in 1961 and a once great community went into rapid decline.

A tough kid who grew up on street corners and in back courts, MacFarlane lived in the same street as Johnnie Stark, the fictional `razor king' of Alexander McArthur's 1935 novel No Mean City, which has become a classic of Scottish pre-war literature. MacFarlane played in the same filth-ridden tenements, witnessing drunken fights and violent gang battles, just like those McArthur wrote about.

As late as the 1960s, Gorbals men still wore bunnets and women headscarves, the steamie was treated as a social club, razor gangs terrorised the streets and crime, rats, poverty and drunkenness were all part of everyday life.

But in The Real Gorbals Story, MacFarlane also describes another world - one of ordinary hard-working people, desperately trying to survive in the toughest conditions and against the odds. Here MacFarlane talks about what it was really like to live in the old Gorbals and recreates the characters that inhabited that unique, bygone world.

Colin MacFarlane is a journalist and has written for a number of national newspapers, including Scotland on Sunday, The Sunday Times, the Scottish Sun and the Daily Record. He lives in Pontypridd, Wales.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Gorbals Story
Bought as a gift for my husband to read as he recouperated from a knee operation. He says it's a good read.
Published 25 days ago by Carol Howells

4.0 out of 5 stars Gritty!!
I like it, but it is not the type of book you can leave lying around if you have kids in the house. The language is choice from the beginning, and I wonder if there is really any... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Robert Louis Stevenson

5.0 out of 5 stars the real side of glasgow
this book gets you absorbed into the real life of the writer and the families of the streets, bars and homes in the gorbals. there is a few shocks and plenty of laughs . Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mrs. Kendra R. Law

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent amusing stupendous book
The Real Gorbals Story is quite simply a magnificently funny. moving, sometimes brutally candid account of being brought up in the old Gorbals of the 1960s. Read more
Published 22 months ago by johnnyboy

5.0 out of 5 stars YOU WOULD BE A MUG NOT TO BUY THIS!
The Real Gorbals Story is the best book ever written about the place. Unlike all the other Gorbals tomes Macfarlane captures the humour and all the characters perfectly. Read more
Published 22 months ago by real gorbals guy

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK ABOUT GREAT TIME A MUST READ FOR ALL
THIS IS A GREAT BOOK FULL OF ANECDOTES AND TWISTS AND TURNS ABOUT THE OLD GORBALS. I DEFY ANYONE TO BRING OUT A BETTER BOOK ABOUT THE GORBALS THAN THIS. Read more
Published 22 months ago by GAME GUY

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a very good read full of true life stories from the gorbals
I was born in Thistle Street in 1953 and The Real Gorbals Story has got the feel of the place and the characters spot on. Read more
Published 22 months ago by tinycumbie

5.0 out of 5 stars MOVIE TO BE MADE ABOUT THE BOOK
Scots Star Lines Up Gorbals: The Movie
2007-10-07

By NORMAN SILVESTER

ATONEMENT star James McAvoy is being lined up to play a young man growing up... Read more
Published 23 months ago by TAM

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK
There have been other books about the Gorbals over the years but this take the biscuit for being head and shoulders above them all. Read more
Published 23 months ago by coakey

5.0 out of 5 stars A WELL WRITTEN PIECE OF MODERN SCOT HISTORY
I TEACH AT VARIOUS UNIVERSITIES AND THE OLD GORBALS AND ITS BOOKS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SUBJECTS AND I HAVE TO SAY THE REAL GORBALS STORY IS BY THE FAR THE BEST MODERN ACOOUNTS I... Read more
Published 23 months ago by TEACHER

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