John Mackechnie

Director, Glasgow Print Studio. Worked with Alasdair for many years and he was also a friend.

Not a close friend but certainly someone you wouldn’t walk by if you encountered him out and about. First met him in 1980/81 and had the occasional unplanned drinks with him. Loaned him small amounts of money now and again which he always gave back with a wee thank you note.

What does Alasdair mean to you?

Explain yourself?

Audio transcript

A genuine eccentric, I suppose. I mean he was the real deal, there. There is only one Alasdair Gray. That’s for sure!

He was… hard working doesn’t quite do it. He lived and breathed his artistic creativity. I mean just like every minute, every day I think, he was actually being creative. All the time.

He was very generous too. That’s another thing about him. One of the things he did was he actually donated a hand-written manuscript for one of his books. For a charity auction that we had. Which I think ended up in a University in America someplace eventually.