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Dance Of The Apprentices

by Edward Gaitens

ISBN: 9780862412975
Imprint: Canongate Classics
Publication Date: Jun 2008
Format: Paperback
Price: £8.99
Stock Status: in stock

Caught in the melting pot of social injustice, revolution, war and pacifism, this powerful book gives a vivid account of the experiences and struggles of a Glasgow family from the First World War and into the Depression at the end of the Twenties. A story of Glasgow apprentices, their lives dignified with a desire for art and learning and with the ideal of reforming the world, the book follows the fortunes of one particular family - the Macdonnels. The mother dreams of social success, whilst struggling to raise her family and her ambitious husband out of slum life. Even at its saddest, the humour of life flashes from every page of this book in comic description and witty observation.

Edward Gaitens (1897 – 1966) was born in the Gorbals of Glasgow. Leaving school at fourteen, he undertook a variety of casual jobs to support himself over the years. When the First World War broke out he became a conscientious objector and was imprisoned for two years in Wormwood Scrubs. In the 1930s he began to write, his early attempts greatly encouraged by his fellow Glaswegian, the dramatist James Bridie. Gaitens continued to write from time to time during the years in which he lived – virtually anonymously – in London and Dublin. Growing Up… and Dance of the Apprentices remain his only published books.

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