Growing up in the Gorbals, Glasgow during World War II was a rough and challenging environment, but Allan Gilfillan McLachlan’s vivid memoir is both humorous and touching. Family love, friendships and resilience shine through in this story of a family struggling with poverty and deprivation.
You can feel the dirt and grime when reading this real-life story, as Allan is raised in a one-room tenement flat, in a family with few material possessions. But what they don’t have materially, they make up for with a lot of love. Of course, during the war everything was rationed and his mother made do by trading clothing coupons for food coupons or cash. But as a child, Allan found fun in the drudgery of queuing at the butchers, making castles and moats in the thick sawdust on the floor. Another favourite memory was his aunties coming for cups of tea, but as there was literally no room at the kitchen table for everyone, the children were pushed underneath where the aunties would gossip and laugh, and the children could hear everything.
Bombs fell as life continued in the Gorbals, and one extraordinary memory is going to the Glasgow Zoo and being worried about lions following Allan and his father home. When Allan’s mammy has another child, Allan has to learn to be more independent even though he is only four. There are always new challenges. Allan was battered about the head by the headmistress. His brother was injured and spent months in the hospital. Allan was once even locked up in a ‘polis’ cell – a salutary lesson. In June 1946, Allan was sent away from his family to another school, as authorities thought he needed fresh air. But he was only seven and desperately homesick for the three months he was there.
But through all the difficulties there was genuine love and laughter from Allan’s resourceful family, so it’s not a difficult book to read, but rather a testament to the resilience of the humour spirit. Likened to Angela’s Ashes, but a Scottish version, this book will find many fans.
Reviewer: Iain McKenzie
Sheena Ross Publishing