Conversational inspiration
In January 2019 Kat started recording Alasdair Gray reading and talking about books for a series of 30 podcasts Alasdair Gray rereads.
She describes how what started as an experiment became an emotional journey for both of them. As reading aloud let Alasdair share his feelings about life, love and death in what turned out to be the final year of his life.
Travelling back in time
Alasdair Gray rereads was inspired by a conversation I heard between 2 women on the station platform at Haywards Heath. They looked old and rather conservative, but they were talking and giggling together like young girls. And I thought they must have known each other all their lives. So that when they were together, they became young again.
This conversation was in my mind when I decided to record my mum and my uncle talking and reading together. They both love books. And I hoped that by asking them to revisit the books they knew as children, I might be able to hear the older brother and younger sister they had once been.
Alasdair and his sister Mora during the first recording session
And as children during the war
Life, love and death
That first recording session was magical to me. And it inspired me to continue the conversation. As a way of spending more time with Alasdair as he got older. And also because I wanted to share with others the very great pleasure of sitting quietly at home with my uncle listening to him read and talk about books.
I started recording Alasdair in January 2019 and he died in December the same year. So we weren’t able to spend as much time together as I’d hoped. But that year of reading allowed Alasdair to share his feelings about life, love and death in a way that would have been impossible in direct conversation.
And my hearing Alasdair’s thoughts turning and returning to these themes and endings, deepened and updated my feelings for him. Expanding my role in the last year of his life from visiting niece to concerned carer. Then companion and witness at the end.
Remembering Kipling’s Just So Stories
Reading one of his own short stories
Discussing the ending of his novel Lanark
Continuing the conversation
Many of our rereads have already been shared online. Although as I’ve arranged them thematically, they don’t necessarily appear as I recorded them. And some recordings are still too raw to return to and edit. But I’m so grateful they exist!
That I was able to spend that time with Alasdair. Share his thoughts. And capture something of his unique spirit and charm before he left us. And it was too late.
Creating A Gray Space
Our time together playing Bananagrams. Talking about and through books. Or just working and thinking in the same space, also laid the foundations for A Gray Space.
It connected me more profoundly with my uncle and the many other people who knew and loved him, in Glasgow and online. And it made me want to continue our conversations.
Conversations about Alasdair and the big themes he loved. Life, death, love, loss, art, purpose, justice, creativity and death. Along with the more trivial pursuits that were also part of our time together. Games, doodles, anecdotes, alcohol and laughter!
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Listen to the Alasdair Gray rereads podcasts on YouTube
