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A wonderfully colourful and deeply poignant memoir of growing up in a ‘single end’ – one room in a Glasgow tenement – during and immediately after the Second World War. Although young Robert Douglas’s life was blighted by the cruel if sporadic presence of his father, it was equally blessed by the love of his mother, Janet. While the story of their life together is in some ways very sad, it is also filled with humorous and happy memories. NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM is a superb evocation of childhood and of a Glasgow of trams and tenements that has long since disappeared.
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Reviews
Exquisite ... a beautiful paean
His prose is direct, pacy, uncluttered ... engaging, deftly written and honestly remembered
NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM is a simply written book and all the better for it ... It recreates stunningly clear memories of a Glasgow childhood ... At the age of 66, Robert Douglas has written his first book - I cannot believe it will be his last.
A well-written slice of social history delivered directly by an eyewitness
It has been a while since a book has reduced me to both tears of laughter and sympathy, but Robert Douglas managed it with NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM.
It is as a record of the old Glasgow spirit that this book is especially worthwhile.
The portrait of his mother is beautifully done ... and her loss (through breast cancer) when he was still very young is heartbreaking: it brings tears to my eyes now just writing about it. Douglas has real skill in conveying experience and his use of the Glasgow vernacular lends an extra poetry to the writing. A quite exceptional autobiography.
Told with a direct, unsentimental honesty ... a vividness that makes them real. This is a remarkable, deeply moving autobiography.
Wonderful ... vivid.
The descriptions of streets and smells and childhood feelings ... come from some little fire that's never gone out in Douglas' mind ... His prose is direct, pacy, uncluttered ... engaging, deftly written and honestly remembered.
Consider for instance "The Great Midden-raking Expedition", the sort of thing millions of Winnie-the-Pooh fans would be familiar with if Christopher Robin had been a Glaswegian ... NIGHT SONG OF THE LAST TRAM is a simply written book and all the better for it ... It recreates stunningly clear memories of a Glasgow childhood ... At the age of 66, Robert Douglas has written his first book - I cannot believe it will be his last.
A heartwarming, heartbreaking tale of a young boy's struggle to become a man.
Robert Douglas looks back to his Glasgow childhood and his experiences, the misery (and the laughter) pouring out on every page. The portrait of his mother is beautifully done ... and her loss (through breast cancer) when he was still very young is heartbreaking: it brings tears to my eyes now just writing about it. Douglas has real skill in conveying experience and his use of the Glasgow vernacular lends an extra poetry to the writing. A quite exceptional autobiography.
'One of the most moving autobiographies ever penned by a Scottish writer'
'Heart warming characters caught up in a clever mystery'