Born in Kyle: Guid Sowels an Braw Lasses tae Sleekit Nyaffs an Heidbangers
Billy gaes back tae his linguistic an cultural ruits in the toun o Gawston in Ayrshire an scrieves vieve memoirs o growin up there in the saicont hauf o the 20th century.
Billy writes about working-class life and the loving environment created by his parents and extended family; about enduring cold winters in a council house where the only heat was a coal fire and a paraffin heater; about what they ate and drank; how children passed their time by collecting everything – football cards to war medals; the richness of their Scots-speaking world, using words and sayings with a long pedigree; the influence of American culture; the strong sense of community in a still-living mining tradition; the football heights and the gambling lows; through the singing of Scots songs, the awareness of the poets who had gone before and who gave the people an identity they celebrated at family gatherings; local religious observation and the good folk from the respectable working class who looked down on the minority who indulged in sectarian nonsense.
Billy maks fowk awaur o the pouer an beauty o their guid Scots tongue, an gies it its richtfu place at the hert o the national culture.
Pentlands Book Festival: 6 Nov - 3 Dec 2025 