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Appleby Fair and a happy childhood on the banks of the Clyde are as clear to this poet as the vanity of a present-day drama queen and the cosy patterns of a Northern city at daybreak. An acute eye for detail, in both nature and mankind, gives these forty-plus works a richness and psycological depth that constantly reward the reader. The first of two delightful longer pieces in the Doric or Scots dialect of 'Glesga' introduces 'Wee Boabby' and his antics in the Temperance Hall - having drink taken: 'Youse must be drunk; yer faces is blurred!' Oh, the shame! But was his fate worse than that met by McPherson on the dreadful night ferry? Drifters, gypsies, outsiders and the accidental visitors of the air lend an other-worldly feeling to Francis McPake's collection which, while vivid and humorous, forms a sonorous anthem to the passing years of the twentieth century. FRANCIS MCPAKE WAS BORN IN 1932 IN CAMBUSLANG SITUATED IN THE CLYDE VALLEY. LEAVING SCHOOL AGED 14 YEARS HE WAS EMPLOYED BY THE LOCAL BUTCHER AS A DELIVERY BOY, THUS REALISING HIS HELD DREAM OF HAVING A 'BIKE'. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE WORKED AT VARIOUS TIMES IN THE STEEL, COAL AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES. WIDOWED AT A YOUNG AGE, HE THEN SPENT MANY YEARS WORKING WITH THE HOMELESS IN MANCHESTER WHERE HE NOW RESIDES..
