Dance of the Apprentices

A classic novel of city life in Glasgow and one Scottish family’s dreams and struggles in the years between the Great War and the Depression.

In Dance of the Apprentices, Edward Gaitens set down what many agree is “the best writing that exists about Glasgow’s badlands.” It tells the story of three young apprentices, their lives dignified with a desire for art and learning and the ideal of reforming the world. But the book also follows the fortunes of the Macdonnel family, and a mother who dreams of social success while struggling to raise her family and her ambitious husband out of slum life (James Campbell, from the introduction).

Caught in the melting pot of social injustice, revolution, war, and pacifism, this powerful book gives a vivid account of Glasgow from the First World War and into the Depression at the end of the 1920s. Even at its saddest, the humor of life flashes from the page in comic description and witty observation.

With an introduction by James Campbell