Customer Reviews:
 A lovely read about the old Gorbals December 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Colin Macfarlane's life story The Real Gorbals Story is a welcome addition to all that has been written about the place before. Unlike No Mean City this book is full of humour and wit that captures the optimism of the Gorbals people. I read it on the beach abroad but even reading it there I could feel the atmosphere of the place overcoming me. It's a must buy for all those who have an interest in the neighbourhood and all its good, bad and ugly characters.
MOVIE TO BE MADE ABOUT THE BOOK December 11, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Scots Star Lines Up Gorbals: The Movie
2007-10-07
By NORMAN SILVESTER
ATONEMENT star James McAvoy is being lined up to play a young man growing up in one of Scotland's most notorious slums.
Movie bosses have approached bestselling author Colin MacFarlane about his book, The Real Gorbals Story.
And they want McAvoy, who recently starred in the Idi Amin drama The Last King of Scotland, to play MacFarlane, whose book is based on his life in the Glasgow slum in the 50s and 60s.
MacFarlane, a former journalist who has also written a successful biography of Tom Jones, says he was contacted by Columbia Tri-Star last week.
He said: "McAvoy is one of the biggest things in Hollywood and they are looking for a new vehicle for him. There was an article about my book in the Hollywood Reporter and they are talking about using McAvoy as the star reflecting on his life in a seriesof flashbacks.
"They want me to go over and discuss a screenplay based on the book. They are also talking about getting Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle on board.
"Their idea is that it would be a movie similar in style and budget to Trainspotting or Neighbourhood Saints."
McAvoy, 28, of Drumchapel, Glasgow is being tipped for an Oscar nomination for World War II drama Atonement.
The BAFTA-winning actor, who got his break in TV's Shameless, is shooting Wanted with Angelina Jolie.
He has also been tipped to play the part of engineer Scottie in a new Star Trek movie.
MacFarlane, 52, now works as a property developer in Pontypridd in Wales.
He was born in Crown Street, the same road that was home to the fictional Johnny Stark in the classic book No Mean City.
The Real Gorbals Story details the poverty, violence and humour of life in the community.
2007 Sunday Mail; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Sunday Mail; Glasgow (UK)
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK December 11, 2007
There have been other books about the Gorbals over the years but this take the biscuit for being head and shoulders above them all. Macfarlane describes in great detail what the 60s community was like and there is never a laugh too far away or a surprise as he has the ability to twist and turn with the numeorous plots that are going on. Highly recommendable and quite simply a fascinating highly readable account about living in the old Gorbals.
THIS IS A VERY GOOD READ, FULL OF PATTER, ACTION December 11, 2007
Glasgow's Gorbals had quite a reputation in the 1960s as arguably one of the darkest, most frightening and dangerous places in the world.
Colin MacFarlane - like television presenter Lorraine Kelly and writers Jimmy Boyle and Ralph Glasser - is a child of the Gorbals. Born in the 1950s, he witnessed the last days of the old Gorbals as a major regeneration programme began in 1961 and a once great community went into rapid decline.
A tough kid who grew up on street corners and in back courts, MacFarlane lived in the same street as Johnnie Stark, the fictional `razor king' of Alexander McArthur's 1935 novel No Mean City, which has become a classic of Scottish pre-war literature. MacFarlane played in the same filth-ridden tenements, witnessing drunken fights and violent gang battles, just like those McArthur wrote about.
As late as the 1960s, Gorbals men still wore bunnets and women headscarves, the steamie was treated as a social club, razor gangs terrorised the streets and crime, rats, poverty and drunkenness were all part of everyday life.
But in The Real Gorbals Story, MacFarlane also describes another world - one of ordinary hard-working people, desperately trying to survive in the toughest conditions and against the odds. Here MacFarlane talks about what it was really like to live in the old Gorbals and recreates the characters that inhabited that unique, bygone world.
Colin MacFarlane is a journalist and has written for a number of national newspapers, including Scotland on Sunday, The Sunday Times, the Scottish Sun and the Daily Record. He lives in Pontypridd, Wales.
A WELL WRITTEN PIECE OF MODERN SCOT HISTORY December 10, 2007
I TEACH AT VARIOUS UNIVERSITIES AND THE OLD GORBALS AND ITS BOOKS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SUBJECTS AND I HAVE TO SAY THE REAL GORBALS STORY IS BY THE FAR THE BEST MODERN ACOOUNTS I HAVE READ ABOUT THE AREA. I CAN ONLY RECOMMEND TO ALL STUDENTS OF THE GORBALS TO GO OUT AND BUY ONE NOW. AND AS THE LOCALS USED TO SAY CUMBIE YA BASS!
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