An Intimate Landscape

Reply to Editorial Assistant of The List who asked for a viewpoint or landscape that meant a great deal to me, and why I found it important.

Dear Sarah Hunter,
                From the twelfth floor of Glasgow University Library, or better still from the roof above it, good views may be had of all Glasgow and what lies beyond. On a clear day the view north is framed by the Kilpatrick Hills, the summit of Ben Lomond, Dumgoyne and the Campsies. Eastward, between or behind some towerblocks, the girders of Provan gas-holders are visible, bits of the Royal Infirmary, Cathedral and Necropolis, Tinto Hill (if the day is clear enough) and the Cathkin Braes with a line of trees along the summit visible from almost anywhere in Glasgow. South-west, beyond the University and towers of the Art Gallery and Clydeside cranes, Queen’s Park and Bellahouston Park are visible, the steep-sided plateau of Neilston Pad, the Gleniffer Braes and (on a clear day again) the summit of Goat Fell on Arran. I have known these places from boyhood, have climbed these Fells, Braes and mountains with my father and friends.

     Please do not phone me.

          Yours truly, Alasdair Gray