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Scotsman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Drayton and Mackenzie by Alexander Starritt review: 'a richly enjoyable novel of ideas'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... I haven't read Alexander Starritt's first two novels, both of which have won prizes, but Drayton and Mackenzie will surely win more. Starritt was born in Scotland, but I have no idea whether he thinks of himself as a Scot. Since a considerable part of this new novel is set in Aberdeen at a time when the oil industry was in trouble after the financial crisis, he may well do so. Certainly he writes of Aberdeen with interest and authority. This novel of Victorian length and ambition has something in common with Andrew O'Hagan's Caledonia Road; certainly it is every bit as ambitious. An oil industry supply vessel docked at Aberdeen Harbour (Picture: Andy Buchanan) | AFP via Getty Images Drayton and Mackenzie sounds like a Department Store, but - another Victorian touch - these are the names of the two heroes. They meet first at the same Oxford College, rowing in the same boat in their first year there. James Dayton is a high-flier, the cleverest man of his year. Roland Mackenzie is lazy and disorganised. In my time at Cambridge someone like Dayton would have become an academic, or gone to the Bar with the intention of heading for Parliament and ministerial office. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dayton joins McKinsey, the American management consultancy company, eve though he's not sure it is worthy of his talent or ambition. Roland, meanwhile, is a drifter with a poor degree. He goes to India and teaches in a very small school. Some years later they meet in a London pub. What Roland says of Indian education interests James: there's somenthing he can get his teeth into. He recruits Roland for his team, and keeps him though Roland is lazy and incompetent. They are very different, yet bound increasingly together. James still lives with hsi parents, and Starritt is good on family life. James and Roland don't quite share girlfriends, but come close to doing so. Then comes the financial crash. James is sent to Aberdeen where over-manned oil companies are in trouble, and takes Roland with him. It's a ruthless time. Their job is to sack people. It's brutal, but has to be done. For me, the Aberdeen section is the best part of the novel - capitalism in crisis, red in tooth nd claw. Yet it is Aberdeen and a meeting with an engineer who has a vision of how to revive the oil boom that, for the first time, gives James the sort of challenge he has been looking for. He keeps Roland with him - Roland, he now knows, has qualities he lacks. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That's enough of the plot, though there's still a long way to go. This is a novel rich in detail, rich too in background, the parents and extended families of both men being brought convincingly to life. Starritt contrives to blend private life, family matters, girlfriends and parties with a serious and often disturbing picture of the times we live in. Combining public and private life is a challenge to any novelist, but Starritt meets it triumphantly. At the novel's heart is the relationship between the two men. I suppose their unlikely friendship is what is now called a bromance; an unlikely but persuasive one. It is also a picture of the times in which we live. Anthony Trollope called one of his finest novels The Way We Live Now, and this would have been a suitable title for Starritt's novel too. For a long time, the best literary novels have fought shy of public life, confining themselves to slim and elegant personal stories - on this side of the Atlantic anyway. Starritt, however, has boldly tackled a big subject, and if there are passages which you think might have been pruned, the novel's vitality is such that you are swept along by the story. It is a novel of ideas which is also richly enjoyable; a novel that demands more than a weekly reviewer can offer, for it calls for a second reading and a slow one if its riches are to be fully grasped.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
I saw the demolition of Gorbal's Caledonia Road flats - I heard great stories
GLASGOW'S skyline was changed on a historic day today as two high-rises defined as "landmarks" were pulled down. The towers at 305 and 341 Caledonia Road were built in 1971 and will be replaced by the owners, New Gorbals Housing Association (NGHA), with more than 100 new social rent homes. I went along to watch the explosions just outside the large safety exclusion zone. This was my first time seeing a controlled explosion in person, and the whole area was filled with a nervous anticipation. I cycled through the city centre before making my way through Glasgow Green, almost crashing as I started noticing the two 23-storey flat blocks at certain viewpoints. People were already lining the bridges, and some had brought picnic blankets to sit in the park and watch the flats being razed to the ground. The blocks were razed to the ground today, June 29 (Image: Julie Howden) READ MORE: Glasgow Caledonia Road high rise flats in Gorbals demolished READ MORE: Glasgow reacts to Caledonia Road flats demolition in Gorbals I arrived at the roundabout at the end of Caledonia Road before 11am, and a small hive of people had already gathered. Some had been there since they were told to evacuate their homes at 7:30am that morning, and they rushed to leave, making sure to shut their windows to avoid dust. There was a tension in the air as anticipation rose for the controlled explosion, and an emotional atmosphere as many locals shared stories about the high-rise flats. Tales were being exchanged, including stories of people growing fruit on their verandas. One local claimed that he used to leave for work and come home to find that his tomato plant had almost doubled in size due to the heat on the 23rd floor. There were laughs as others shared some stories full of mischief that weren't fit for newspaper publishing. But, many couldn't speak as they were overcome with emotion, and the phrase "end of an era" was repeated by everyone. They also spoke of the "landmark" that the towers were, noting that the many views they had of them would always "remind them they were coming home" - especially when seen from the M74 motorway. I saw the demolition of the Caledonia Road flats in Glasgow (Image: Newsquest) READ NEXT: Major road outside Scottish city closed as emergency services race to scene Just after 1 pm, a warning drone sounded from inside the sealed-off site. Gasps were heard around the street as the hundreds of people who had gathered collectively held their breaths. Then a loud pop started the demolition. First, the left, westerly, high-rise collapsed, shortly followed by the right one. The ground was shaking, and everybody was watching in silence as a cloud of dust billowed into the air. In the silence that lasted for a few seconds, but felt like minutes, the clear blue sky began to emerge from where the 226ft buildings used to be. The crowd broke out in a cheer, which seemed out of place considering the emotional conversations that had been taking place just minutes earlier. The crowds dispersed almost as quickly as the few short seconds it had taken for the high-rises to come down. I stood and looked at the rubble that lay where those stories were now buried before starting my cycle back to the city centre. The dust had blown up the Clyde, and I was coated in a layer of it as I made my way through Glasgow Green again. I couldn't help but stop to look at the space where the blocks had once been, while thinking of veranda-grown tomatoes and the sense of loss felt by the Gorbals community.
