Studying the West Coast of Scotland from the yacht Britannia, the Queen is said to have remarked, not long ago, that the people there didn't seem to have much of a life. James Kelman's stories make clear what life is like in Glasgow,[*] and what James Kelman's life is like. They are not going to change the royal mind. This is the queen who was greeted, on a visit to a Scottish university, by the sight of a student emptying down his throat, at top speed, the contents of a bottle of alcohol.

LRB 2 March 1989 | PDF Download