Three Books To Help Educate You on Glasgow’s History
Covering crime, housing and women’s rights
Whether you’re a Glaswegian looking to delve deeper into the history of your city, planning a visit post-lockdown, or just looking for an interesting read on one of Scotland’s most exciting and popular cities, then look no further! I’ve created a list of some fascinating books that will educate you on Glasgow’s important history.
Struggle and Suffrage in Glasgow by Judith Vallely
In 1870, the average life expectancy of a woman in Glasgow was as low as 32.6 years. In this book, Judith Vallely examines the standard of living amongst women in Glasgow prior to gaining the right to vote.
The educational and employment barriers endured by women are detailed in their own chapters which describe the commonly overcrowded city tenements and squalid working conditions. In these early chapters and throughout the book as Vallely goes on to examine the suffrage movement, notable women are credited for their contribution to the cause, from the first women to challenge inequality in education, to those adopting the militant campaigning methods of the suffragettes, and the collaborative commitment of women to the war effort.
Vallely tells of the significance of some buildings which still stand in Glasgow today including the former home of the BBC which was once one of the first places providing women with access to education. A picture section is also incorporated into the book, which presents faces to the names of the pioneering women who led the way for change and anti-suffrage postcards from a collection at Glasgow Women’s Library are also featured.
Glasgow Women’s Library is the only Accredited Museum in the UK dedicated to women’s lives, histories, and achievements. You can find out more at https://womenslibrary.org.uk/about-us/.
The Real Taggarts: Glasgow’s Post-War Crimebusters by Andrew G. Ralston
Taggart actor Alex Norton, who portrayed Detective Chief Inspector Burke in the iconic series for eight years, introduces this detailed account by Andrew G. Ralston of city life and the work of real-life police officers and detectives in post-war Glasgow.
As well as exploring a fresh prominence of gang culture and an increase in robberies and housebreakings in the era of illegal gambling after the war, this book details how the detectives credited for catching the culprits of some of the city’s most brutal murders worked to solve their cases.
Included is the work of Superintendent Alex Brown who was dubbed “The man who caught Manuel”, Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Goodall whose commitment to his job led to his premature death, and Detective Superintendent Joe Beattie who heavily immersed himself in the hunt for “Bible John”, the unidentified serial killer who operated in Glasgow between 1968 and 1969.
A picture section within the book displays photographs of the men who were in charge of the police force which consisted of just 44 women in the mid-fifties, as well as excerpts from Detective Tom Goodall’s personal notebook and a selection of newspaper front pages.
Finding Peggy by Meg Henderson
At the forefront of this intensely personal account is the post-war housing crisis in Glasgow.
Journalist Meg Henderson recounts her experiences of growing up in working-class areas of Glasgow throughout the 1950s and 60s as clearances led to thousands of families leaving long-resided homes for generalised council estates, where families were deprived of the strong sense of community they were once familiar with.
Henderson provides exhaustive detail on the housing schemes plagued with religious sectarianism in which she lived after their tenement block collapsed, including the Blackhill district which was notorious for its poor living conditions, later followed by the newly constructed Drumchapel. These new housing schemes provided families with few amenities and made travel to the city centre expensive.
Born into a mixed-religion family, Henderson narrates an in-depth insight into her upbringing, telling of both the conflicting and close relationships which shaped her life, and the traumatic death of her Aunt Peggy which, as she later investigates as an adult, becomes the focal point of the book, revealing a contempt for the working class and system failures.
The lives of working-class people are represented in all of these books, which together cover a period of nearly one hundred years. Each of these books, which can be purchased online at reasonable prices, have enriched my knowledge of my home city and are a great starting point for anyone eager to educate themselves further on Glasgow’s rich history.
