Apprentice

London. 1983. Hamish Hamilton. 1st British Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0241109973. 156 pages. hardcover. Jacket artwork by Roy Knipe. keywords: Europe Scotland Literature World Literature. DESCRIPTION - We all, at one time or another, want to educate people. Billy Thompson is no different. Sent by his English middle-class parents to be a shipyard apprentice on Clydeside in the 1950s, he is an innocent abroad. The proud and private Scots with whom he throws in his lot on the steep streets of Greenock are something of a mystery to him - stubborn, unsophisticated and in many ways ignorant. But he has just what they need. He has an education. In each of these five connected stories Billy tries hard to pass on that education, to help those less fortunate than himself. So why can he not save the gentle Mrs. Mulvenny, his landlady, from the terrible consequences of her husband's pride? What has gone wrong when the girl from the ropeworks, red-haired Elsie, cannot be persuaded that having perfect pitch is more important than getting married and having a squaad o' weans'? And what sort of a world is it when you give your savings to a friend in need and he unrepentantly swindles you? Tom Gallacher, with an unerring instinct for the flavour of his Scottish setting and the clash of culture and personality, paints an extraordinarily true-to-life picture of Billy's initiation not only into ships and their building, but more importantly into the world of what he calls those spirited, funny and maddening people.' inventory #603.…