Imprint
- Hodder Paperbacks
- Hodder & Stoughton
Biography, Biography: general, Prose: non-fiction
The next chapter in Robert Douglas's remarkable life story picks up from the bestselling NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM but can be read on its own
We left Robert a long way from home, a sixteen-year-old recruit in the RAF. Now, we follow his escape from the Forces (until National Service a few years later!), his return to Glasgow and life down the pit. Once more, Robert's fantastic memory for people, places and anecdotes, combined with an ear for individual voices and the brilliant ability to evoke a bygone sense of community, will enchant his readers and sometimes appal them with the brutality of conditions he experienced.
Praise for Somewhere To Lay My Head
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Warm, energetic...punchy - The Sunday Times
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A natural-born writer...pins down all-too-human characters in a sentence or two - and a number of times he made me laugh out loud. He also recaptures the late 1950s and early 1960s, rekindling memories for those of us who were there or thereabouts and bringing them alive for those who weren't...convincing and entertaining - The Scotsman
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Night Song of the Last Tram was one of the most moving autobiographies ever penned by a Scottish writer...Somewhere to Lay my Head takes up where that left off...Once again demonstrating an outstanding gift for evoking the atmosphere and emotions of a time gone by, this wonderfully talented storyteller takes us on a journey that he started as a boy and ended as a man - Daily Record
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If Blake Morrison is the Radio 4 of family memoir, then Robert Douglas is definitely the Radio 2 - Sunday Herald
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With the ending of NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM, Douglas left us longing to find out what happened to his 16-year-old self, so cruelly cast out into the world. Now, in SOMEWHERE TO LAY MY HEAD, Douglas continues his story, portraying a bright and clever boy who never got the opportunities he deserved, but was still determined to make his way in the world - Publishing News
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It recreates stunningly clear memories of a Glasgow childhood . . . I laughed until the tears ran down my legs. - Daily Mail on NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM
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Exquisite - The Sunday Times on NIGHT SONG
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A grace and assurance that turn everyday episodes into the stuff of romance. - Times Literary Supplement on NIGHT SONG
Robert Douglas
Robert Douglas retired, aged fifty-five, in 1994. He intended to paint, write short stories and lie about the house watching old films. A one-off article he wrote about six weeks spent with a condemned man in Bristol prison led to him being told 'You should write.'
His first book - the bestselling NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM - is centred around his Glasgow childhood and became the first book in the popular trilogy detailing his life as a miner, dock worker, doss-house resident, soldier, prison screw - and survivor.
He hasn't painted for years.
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