These were my opening remarks at the launch of Great John Maclean Has Come Home to the Clyde at Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, Glasgow on 26 August 2025. Joining me on the panel were Owen Maitland, national president of Scottish Socialist Youth (pictured above left) and Iain Gault from my publisher Resistance Books (above right). “History’s what people are trying to hide from you, not what they’re trying to show you.
As far as I am aware, only Calton Books and Lighthouse Books in Scotland, and Connolly Books in Ireland, have copies in store. The book is available online at all other outlets listed. Scotland Calton Books, 159 London Road, Glasgow (pictured above) Lighthouse Books, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. Ireland Connolly Books, 43 East Essex Street Temple Bar, Dublin UK Resistance Books Waterstones Foyles Hive TGJones Fishpond Awesome Books Blackwell’s
A couple of weeks before I was due to head off to Glasgow in search of the ghost of John Maclean, I stumbled across a couple of articles online, both of which resonated strongly with me. The first was a feature about the Glasgow-based writer Ian R. Mitchell, ‘Following in the footsteps of Maclean and Maxwell’ by Russell Leadbetter, published in the Glasgow Herald magazine on 11 July 2015. An extract:
