From Scenes Like These

From Scenes Like These - Paperback

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From Scenes Like These
  • From Scenes Like These
From Scenes Like These - Paperback

From Scenes Like These - Paperback

by Gordon M. Williams
$19.99
$19.99

Book Overview

by Gordon M. Williams (Author)

Shortlisted for the first ever Booker Prize

'A masterpiece' - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

'An extraordinary novel' - Michael Magee, author of Close to Home

'It deserves its modern classic status' - The Times

It's the west of Scotland in the 1950s. New houses are going up. Factories are opening.

But Dunky Logan, a 15-year-old brought up in a tenement flat in working-class Kilcaddie, is ditching school to be a labourer on a local farm. Dead set on becoming a hard case, he wants to work shoulder to shoulder with so-called real men.

Irish Catholic Mary O'Donnell arrives at the farmhouse as the new maid. She is pregnant - no boyfriend in sight. But she's smart, and she has a plan to get herself up in the world.

As Dunky is swallowed up by a vicious cycle of violence, betrayal, and booze, Mary becomes entangled in a savage family feud.

Now there's no going back, not for either of them.

With an introduction by James Robertson.

Author Biography

Gordon M. Williams was born in Paisley in 1934. After he completed national service with the Royal Air Force in Germany, Willams began his career as a reporter for the Johnstone Advertiser, before moving to England and becoming an author in the mid-1960s. His novels include Walk Don't Walk, Big Morning Blues, The Camp, The Upper Pleasure Garden and From Scenes Like These, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Booker Prize in 1969. His novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm was adapted into the film Straw Dogs, directed by Sam Peckinpah.

Working at the arts magazine Scene, Williams shared an office with the playwright Tom Stoppard. With Terry Venables, he wrote the beloved football novel They Used to Play on Grass, and later, while working as a commercial manager for Chelsea FC, the Hazell detective series, which was adapted for television in 1978. He died in 2017.
Number of Pages: 352
Dimensions: 0.9 x 7.7 x 5.1 IN
Publication Date: February 10, 2026
ISBN9781035073566
Author Gordon M. Williams
PublisherPicador UK
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedFebruary 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages352
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Fiction Literary

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More by Gordon M. Williams

From Scenes Like These

From Scenes Like These - Paperback

From Scenes Like These - Paperback

By Gordon M. Williams

About Gordon M. Williams

Gordon M. Williams was born in Paisley in 1934. He was the author of several novels, including From Scenes Like These, which was shortlisted for the first Booker Prize in 1969, Walk Don't Walk, Big Morning Blues, The Camp, The Man Who Had Power Over Women, and The Siege of Trencher's Farm, which was made into the film Straw Dogs. He was also the ghostwriter for the autobiographies of footballers Bobby Moore, Terry Venables and Tommy Docherty. He died in 2017.

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