Till the Clock Stops

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - On a certain brilliant Spring morning in London's City the seed of the Story was lightly sown. Within the directors' room of the Aasvogel Syndicate, Manchester House, New Broad Street, was done and hidden away a deed, simple and commonplace, which in due season was fated to yield a weighty crop of consequences complex and extraordinary. At the table, pen in hand, sat a young man, slight of build, but of fresh complexion, and attractive, eager countenance, neither definitely fair nor definitely dark. He was silently reading over a document engrossed on bluish hand-made folio; not a lengthy document - nineteen lines, to be precise. And he was reading very slowly and carefully, chiefly to oblige the man standing behind his chair.

Born in Hillhead, Glasgow he was the eldest son of James T Bell, a Tobacco Manufacturer. Bell was schooled at Kelvinside Academy and Morrison's Academy. He attended the University of Glasgow, where he studied chemistry. After becoming a journalist, Bell worked for the Glasgow Evening Times, and as sub-editor of the Scots Pictorial. His articles described the life of working-class Glaswegians, and were often written in the vernacular. He created the character of 'MacGreegor' for his Evening Times articles, and the stories were so popular that they were published in book form, and later made into a film. Bell has often been criticised for being overly sentimental, but it is also said that his vernacular was accurately representative, which is partly what made them popular. During recent years though, Bell's books are increasingly neglected.