Spence, Alan 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born December 5, 1947, in Glasgow, Scotland; married. Education: Attended Glasgow University, 1966-69 and 1973-74.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Curtis Brown Group Ltd., Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP, England.

CAREER:

Writer-in-residence at Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland, 1975-77, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1982, Edinburgh District Council, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1986-87, and Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1990—. With his wife, director of the Sri Chinmoy Meditation Centre, Glasgow, Scotland.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Scottish Arts Council Book Award, for Seasons of the Heart, 1990; Glasgow Herald People's Prize, for The Magic Flute, 1991; Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition, for "Nessun Dorma," 1993; McVitie Prize, for Stone Garden and Other Stories, 1995; TMA Regional Theatre Award, for On the Line, 1996; Scottish Arts Council Book Award, 1996, 2000; Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award, writing section, 2006.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Magic Flute, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1990.

Way to Go, Phoenix House (London, England), 1998, MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

The Pure Land, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2006.

SHORT STORIES

Its Colours They Are Fine, Collins (London, England), 1977.

(Author of introduction) Robin Jenkins, The Changeling, Canongate Classics (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1989.

Stone Garden and Other Stories, Phoenix House (London, England), 1995.

Contributor of short stories to anthologies, including Modern Scottish Short Stories, edited by Fred Urquhart and Giles Gordon, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1978, revised edition published by Faber (London, England), 1982; and Street of Stone, edited by Moira Burgess and Hamish Whyte, Salamander Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1985.

PLAYS

Sailmaker, Salamander Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1982.

Space Invaders, Salamander Press (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1983.

Changed Days, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1991.

POETRY

Plop! 15 Haiku, No Name Press (Glasgow, Scotland), 1970.

Glasgow Zen, Print Studio Press (Glasgow, Scotland), 1981, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2002.

Seasons of the Heart: Haiku, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2000.

Clear Light, Canongate (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2005.

NONFICTION

(Author of introduction) Sri Chinmoy, The Silent Teaching: A Selection of the Writings of Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Centre/Aum Publications (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1982.

Crab and Lobster Fishing, Blackwell Science (Oxford, England), 1989.

(Author of foreword) Moira Burgess, Reading Glasgow: A Scottish Book Trust Literary Guide to Authors and Books Associated with the City, Scottish Book Trust (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1998.

(Contributor) Isobel Murray, editor, Scottish Writers Talking 2: Iain Banks, Bernard Maclaverty, Naomi Mitchison, Iain Crichton Smith, Alan Spence in Interview, Tuckwell Press (East Linton, England), 2002.

OTHER

Ah!, 1975.

Discovering the Borders, J. Donald Publishers (Edinburgh, Scotland), 1994.

Also wrote pieces for the radio.

SIDELIGHTS:

Scottish writer Alan Spence has written short stories, including the collections Its Colours They Are Fine and Stone Garden and Other Stories, novels, including The Magic Flute and Way to Go, plays, and poems in the Japanese style known as haiku.

Its Colours They Are Fine features short stories about young, Protestant, working-class males in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1950s and 1960s. John Mellors wrote in the Listener that "the thick atmosphere Spence creates comes over as authentic." Ian A. Bell, contributing to Contemporary Novelists, observed that the stories in Its Colours They Are Fine are, "in the tradition of James Joyce, looking for the magical revealing moments in the lives of ordinary urban citizens." The initial stories in the collection focus on the character of Aleck, possibly Spence's young alter ego, and his friend Shuggie, who drops out of school to lead a gang. The second group of stories includes "The Rain Dance," which describes traditional Glasgow prenuptial activities, including a groom's bachelor party and a bride's parade through the streets. "The Conversation" features the discourse of two old men on a bench. Times Literary Supplement contributor Roger Garfitt noted that in this second group of stories, Spence "rises with evident zest to the imaginative and formal challenges of fiction." The third group of stories includes "Changes," a generational tale of taking drugs, studying Buddhism, and wanderlust. Garfitt observed that the characters' spoken dialogue differs markedly from their unspoken thoughts, as they "speak Glaswegian but think in standard literary English," yet commented that Its Colours They Are Fine "succeeds almost entirely."

The Magic Flute begins at the time of U.S. president John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, and ends with the murder of musician John Lennon in 1980. Four working-class Protestant boys grow up in Glasgow and pursue different paths. Brian is a good student who becomes a teacher. George becomes a Mason and marries a Catholic woman. Eddie joins the army, then finds himself in trouble with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Tam is a musician who lives variously in Ireland, other European countries, and the United States. Times Literary Supplement contributor James Campbell noted: "A lot of this is beautifully described. As there is no plot and interest depends on the unfolding of these four young lives, interconnections have to be skillfully managed even after the boyhood friendships have all but terminated." Campbell added that "The Magic Flute is as complex and clever as it is enjoyable to read." Reviewing The Magic Flute in the Listener, Brian Morton commented: "The idea that lives can be transformed by music becomes reality. The novel itself progresses like a musical performance with a remarkable conclusion that offers all the apotheosis of a final chord."

Some of the characters from Its Colours They Are Fine and The Magic Flute reemerge in Stone Garden and Other Stories. The protagonists in these stories are often on the move, on pilgrimages or quests that take them away from their Scottish roots. No matter where these characters travel, people and events remind them of Scotland, and they reminisce about their home country in locales like Tobago and Japan. Times Literary Supplement contributor Kasia Boddy noted that sometimes "Spence signals the epiphanic moments too insistently, with too much emphasis on Zen significance," yet added that "in the best stories, he leaves the reader with a sense that things are left unexplained, incomplete." The reviewer praised in particular "Christian Endeavor," a story about a boy who turns to religion after the death of his mother. Boddy commented that Stone Garden and Other Stories and The Magic Flute both depict "the messily exuberant 1960s experience of young Scots," but noted that in Stone Garden and Other Stories, Spence "undercuts it with a contemporary perspective which acknowledges that ‘the memory does its own editing job.’"

The protagonist of Way to Go, Neil, and his wife Lila go into the custom casket business when Neil's father dies and leaves the firm to Neil. Renamed "Way to Go," the business offers upscale customers personalized rituals as well as creatively designed caskets. Their venture is a huge success, but Neil still has unresolved issues with his father. Times Literary Supplement contributor Michael Kerrigan wrote that the father's "troubled, troubling spirit" hangs over Neil's success, and observed that the father, not the son, is "the novel's emotional center."

In The Pure Land, Spence retells the story of the businessman who might have inspired the story of Madame Butterfly, and who was definitely a major influence in the forming of Japan and its culture, offering readers his view on the character in a fictionalized form. Thomas Glover, living in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a thrill seeker, enamored of any unique opportunity. So when he is given the chance to travel to Japan in 1859 as part of his work for Jardine, Mathieson & Co., he is anxious to go. The trading business is perfect for Glover, who has an entrepreneurial spirit and a talent for making the best deal, and these coupled with his own personal ambitions make him highly successful. He develops his own import/export trade, dealing in all manner of goods, including weapons. Against the advice of several Brits in Japan, he involves himself in local politics and has a role in bringing rebel forces into power over the shogun of his day. He has several romances, loses a child to a premature birth, and even loses an entire fortune, but his stay in Japan is eventful, and the country ultimately remains his home until his death in 1911. A Kirkus Reviews contributor dubbed the work "a colorful, empathetic, melancholy-tinged portrait of a Victorian colossus." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly remarked: "Thoughtful and vivid, the novel adds rich detail to a life known mostly in broad strokes."

As Ian A. Bell commented in Contemporary Novelists: "Spence is a writer whose continuing development should be closely followed. If he can find a way of integrating his exceptional perceptiveness and reverence for experience in a compelling extended narrative, he could be one of the most interesting and individual novelists in Britain."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Brown, Susan Windisch, editor, Contemporary Novelists, 6th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

Spence, Alan, Stone Garden and Other Stories, Phoenix House (London, England), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2007, review of The Pure Land.

Listener, September 8, 1977, John Mellors, review of Its Colours They Are Fine, p. 318; May 3, 1990, Brian Morton, review of The Magic Flute, p. 34.

Publishers Weekly, August 6, 2007, review of The Pure Land, p. 164.

Times Literary Supplement, September 2, 1977, Roger Garfitt, review of Its Colours They Are Fine, p. 1062; June 8-14, 1990, James Campbell, review of The Magic Flute, p. 616; July 7, 1995, Kasia Boddy, review of Stone Garden and Other Stories, p. 22; August 14, 1998, Michael Kerrigan, review of Way to Go, p. 9.