1930's

1940's

1950's

1960's

1970's

1980's

1990's

2000

1934

28 December: born, 11 Findhorn Street, Riddrie, East Glasgow. Father a folding-box machine cutting operative, mother a former shop assistant and singer in the Glasgow Orpheus Choir.

1940-42

Evacuated with mother and younger sister to a farm in Auchterarder, Perthshire; then to Stonehouse, a mining town in Lanarkshire.

1942-46

Lived in hostel for munition workers, Wetherby, Yorkshire, of which father was manager.

1947-52

Attended Whitehill Senior Secondary School. Received prizes & Higher SCE for Art & English.

1952-57

Attended Glasgow School of Art. Won travelling scholarship & SE Diploma in Design & Mural Painting.

1954-57

MURAL on Horrors of War (Glasgow Crucifixion and Apocalypse with Fall of Star Wormwood) in Scottish-USSR Friendship Society, 8 Belmont Crescent, Hillhead, Glasgow.

1956

Jonah, play written for and performed by Glasgow School of Art puppetry department.

1958-62

Teacher of Art, mostly part-time, in Lanarkshire & Glasgow.
MURALS on The Seven Days of Creation, Chancel of Greenhead Church of Scotland, Bridgeton, Glasgow, and on The Firmament, ceiling of Belleisle Street Synagogue, Giffnock, Glasgow. (Both buildings later demolished.)

1961

Performs at CND nightclub in the Edinburgh Festival, where he has also painted murals. Meets Inge Sørensen. They marry.
MURALS illustrating The Book of Jonah in private flat, 280 West Princes Street, Hillhead, Glasgow. Leaves Findhorn Street to live in Hill Street, central Glasgow.

1962-63

Scene painter for Glasgow Pavilion & Glasgow Citizens' Theatres: designed scenery for pantomime Dick Whittington.

1963-64

Draws social security benefit as unemployed scene painter. Paints.
Submits Book 1 of Lanark to Curtis Brown Literary Agency who reject it. (Published with 3 other Books as one volume in 1981.)
Birth of son.

1964

Under the Helmet, 50 minute TV documentary about Gray's work in painting & verse, is networked by BBC; Bob Kitts director, Huw Wheldon producer. Payment for this allows a start as a self-employed artist and writer, with seven one-man exhibitions at the Edinburgh Traverse gallery & Glasgow Kelly gallery in the following years, aided by some lecturing on art appreciation for Glasgow University Extra-Mural Department.

1968

The Fall of Kelvin Walker, 50 minute TV play, networked by BBC2.
MURAL, Black and White Earth Mother Phantasmagoria in stairwell of private house, 10 Kelvin Drive, Hillhead, Glasgow. Before Christmas moves to 39 Kersland Street, West Glasgow.
Quiet People, 30 minute radio play, BBC Scotland.

1969

Receives grant from Scottish Arts Council to make a series of prints illustrating own verses.
Dialogue, 30 minute radio play, BBC Scotland.
MURAL, Falls of Clyde landscape, The Tavern, Kirkfieldbank, Lanarkshire. Leaves wife and son. Lodges at 11 Turnberry Road.

1970

The Trial of Thomas Muir, 30 minute radio play, BBC Scotland.

1971

The Night Off, 45 minute radio play, networked by BBC.
Dialogue, one act stage play, performed by Stage Company, Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, with Blocks Play by Cecil Taylor.
Honesty & Martin, 20 minute TV plays, Scottish BBC Schools.

1972

Today & Yesterday, series of three 20 minute plays, for Scottish BBC Schools series.
Dialogue, 30 minute TV play networked by London BBC.
Triangles, 60 minute TV play networked by Granada.
The Fall of Kelvin Walker stage version taken on tour by the Stage Company, Scotland.

1973

James Watt, 10 minute TV play for Glasgow Schools service.
The Man Who Knew About Electricity, 20 minute TV play networked by London BBC magazine Full House.
Homeward Bound & The Loss of the Golden Silence, one act stage plays produced by Pool Lunch Hour Theatre, Edinburgh.
The Loss of the Golden Silence, 30 minute radio play, BBC Scotland.
MURAL on The Book of Ruth, Greenbank Church of Scotland, Clarkston.

1974

MURAL on ecological cycles, Exhibition Centre, Palacerigg Nature Reserve, Cumbernauld. Retrospective Painting Exhibition in the Collins Gallery, Strathclyde University.

1975

McGrotty & Ludmilla, 50 minute radio play networked by London BBC. Designed & illustrated A Scent of Water, children's stories by Carl MacDougall. Returned to 39 Kersland Street, first wife and son having left there.

1976

Beloved, 60 minute TV play networked by Granada. As producer had changed script without consultation, I withdrew my name from the credits, which may have stunted by career as a playwright. MURAL: Florid Jungle, Ubiquitous Chip Restaurant, Ashton Lane, Hillhead, Glasgow. (Painted in return for meals, and later destroyed by damp penetration.)

1977

Socrates, 60 minute TV play networked in England by Granada. Employed as Glasgow's official Artist Recorder, for 9 months, painting portraits of contemporaries and streetscapes for the People's Palace Local History Museum.

1977-79

Writer in Residence, Glasgow University.

1980-81

MURAL: Arcadia, back stairwell of Ubiquitous Chip Restaurant, Ashton Lane, Hillhead, Glasgow.

1981

Lanark, a novel, Canongate, Edinburgh. Received David Niven & Saltire awards, also Scottish Arts Council design award. From this date onwards lives almost wholly by writing, designing and illustrating books, mainly his own.

1982

Tickly Mince, review written in collaboration with Liz Lochhead & Tom Leonard, acted in the Pleasance, Edinburgh & Tron Theatre, Glasgow.

1983

The Pie of Damocles, review in same venues by same writers, with addition of James Kelman.
Beim Zugführer, translation of 30 minute radio play rejected by the BBC and broadcast by West Deutsches Rundfunk.
Unlikely Stories, Mostly, Canongate, Edinburgh, a collection of tales which received Times literary Supplement & SAC design award. Designed & illustrated Shoestring Gourmet, Canongate, Edinburgh, recipe book by Wilma Paterson.

1983-93

Designed 15 original covers for Chapman literary magazine.

1984

1982, Janine, a novel, Cape, London.

1985

The Fall of Kelvin Walker, novella, Canongate, Edinburgh.
Lean Tales, Cape, London, story collection with James Kelman & Agnes Owens.
Saltire Self Portrait, Saltire Society, Edinburgh, autobiographical essay.

1986

McGrotty & Ludmilla, stage play at Tron Theatre, Glasgow. 5 Scottish Artists Show. Organized & paid for a large Retrospective Exhibition, with printed catalogue, of works by self & contemporaries that was shown in Glasgow McLellan Gallery, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh & Aberdeen Art Gallery.

1987

The Story of a Recluse, 50 minute TV play, networked by BBC. Signs contract to write Anthology of Prefaces.

1988-90

1988, Old Negatives, book of poems, Cape, London. Was art editor, designer & illustrator (unpaid) for Dog & Bone, a small unsuccessful publishing house which issued 2 poetry books, 2 crime fictions, 1 comic novella, a cookery book & a paranormal study before collapsing.

1989

Decanted to 52 St Vincent Terrace, Glasgow G38.

1990

McGrotty & Ludmilla, a novella, Dog & Bone, Glasgow.
Something Leather, a novel, Cape, London.
The Fall of Kelvin Walker, stage play, Arches Theatre, Glasgow.

1991

Marries Morag McAlpine. Moves to her home in 2 Marchmont Terrace, Glasgow.

1992

Why Scots Should Rule Scotland, political pamphlet, Canongate, Edinburgh.
Poor Things, a novel, Bloomsbury, London, received Guardian & Whitbread awards.

1993

Ten Tales Tall & True, short stories, Bloomsbury, London.

1994

A History Maker, science fiction novel, Canongate, Edinburgh.

1995

MURAL: The Thistle of Dunfermline's History, Abbot's House Local History Museum, Maygate, Dunfermline.

1996

Mavis Belfrage, novella & short stories, Bloomsbury, London.
Designed & illustrated 100 Songs of Scotland, Mainstream, Edinburgh.

1997

Why Scots Should Rule Scotland, revised pamphlet, Canongate, Edinburgh.
Working Legs, a play for the disabled, published as a book by Dog & Bone, Glasgow, toured by Birds of Paradise Theatre Company.

1999-01

MURAL on Arcadia Theme: a restoration and enlargement of the stairwell mural in the Ubiquitous Chip Restaurant, Ashton Lane, Glasgow.

1999

Introduction to the books of JONAH, MICAH, NAHUM published by Canongate, Edinburgh.

2000

The Book of Prefaces, published by Bloomsbury, London.
16 Occasional Poems, published by Morag McAlpine, Glasgow

1930's

1940's

1950's

1960's

1970's

1980's

1990's

2000

Back to Contents