The writer and artist Alasdair Gray, who blazed a trail for contemporary Scottish fiction with his experimental novels, has died aged 85. In 1954, Gray began writing the novel that would occupy him on and off throughout the 1960s and 70s. Lanark divides the story of a life into four books, alternating between Glasgow and a shadowy version of the city called Unthank. The Guardian hailed it as “a bibliophile’s paradise of postmodern precision” and awarded Gray its 1992 fiction prize. But alongside his writing, Gray carried on painting.

Source: The Guardian December 29, 2019 11:05 UTC