This new mob seem unafraid and Acclaimed author hails the rising
Andrew O’hagan salutes a cresting wave of talented writers,
They spoke in a voice he knew and talked of people and places he recognised but – and Andrew O’hagan can still remember his astonishment – they had written books.
Almost four decades later, the acclaimed novelist recalls the shock of recognition he felt in the early 1980s after discovering a new generation of Scots writers.
Authors like James Kelman and Alasdair Gray resonated with the teenager who had grown up in a council house in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, and today O’hagan hails the cresting of another wave of resonating, inspirational Scottish literary talent.
“I remember a flowering of writers, in Glasgow especially, in the early ’80s and how exciting a moment it was,” he said. “It felt like working-class voices were finding a way on to the page and into world literature, and it’s happening again now, but more so. There is something unafraid and stylish about this new mob and I’m full of admiration.
“There is a sense of hope, even in the dark times we’re living in now, and I can see the arts responding and flourishing, not shying away or missing the mark, and trying to give a sense of hope and destiny in their writing, and that’s not something every country can say.
“Scottish literature is on fire at the moment. Look at the last two years alone – Kirstin Innes, Jenni Fagan, David Keenan, Graeme Armstrong
– these are all fresh names writing at the top of their powers.
“It’s incredibly enlivening and encouraging when the literature in our own small country is of world standard and taking on the best writing of any other country you care to mention. Douglas Stuart’s experience since winning the Booker Prize for Shuggie Bain has been to see how, internationally, the response to Scottish subjects and Scottish style has been at an optimum in this moment.
“It’s almost a kind of enlightenment period, for questions of masculinity, the rights of people of colour and ethnic minorities, the rights of women, and Scotland has turned on all the lights in relation
‘ It was alarming to find myself on a hospital ward
Grenfell Tower tributes to these topics, and writers have been a big part of that.”
O’hagan’s latest novel, Mayflies, is the most personal of his books, in a career stretching back 30 years. It is based on his friendship with childhood friend Keith Martin, who died in 2018 after a cancer diagnosis.
“The friendship of the characters of Jimmy and Tully are a direct reflection of my friendship with Keith, that journey from childhood to the final challenge of adulthood and death. It seemed like a story ripe to tell. It felt like all the energy of my own friendships and experiences had to flow into this – it was as personal as I could make it.”
He expected Mayflies to slip out quietly – bookshops were closed and the world was in the grip of a pandemic. Instead, it has become the bestselling book of his career, and he believes one of the reasons why is because it is a subject matter about community and friendship and reminding yourself of what matters most in life, all issues at the forefront of our minds in this year of lockdown and pandemic.
O’hagan, who lives in London, was recently announced as patron for the Dignity In Dying Scotland group, which is legislating for a change of law to assisted dying, after watching what his friend Keith went through in his final days.“To force people in that position who want to die peacefully to go to the bother of raising money and going to a foreign country seems to me a piece of savagery we can well do without in a modern country like Scotland,” said the author. “We can lead the way in the UK on this, and give people the respect and dignity in dying they deserve.”
He endured his own life-threatening brush with Covid after a trip to Ayrshire to visit his mum when, the writer believes, he contracted the virus from a service station petrol pump. He was to spend 10 days in Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock.
“It was quite a bad case,” he said.