James Kelman is the Glasgow novelist who brought the voice of the city’s working class into literature and, in 1994, became the first Scot to win the Booker Prize. His fiction, written in the Glasgow vernacular, gives dignity and depth to lives rarely seen in novels.
A Glasgow voice
Born in Glasgow in 1946, Kelman left school at fifteen and worked as an apprentice compositor and a bus driver before turning to writing. In the 1970s he joined the creative writing circle around Philip Hobsbaum, alongside Alasdair Gray and Liz Lochhead, that did so much for Glasgow’s cultural life.
The working-class novel
Kelman writes about ordinary Glaswegians and their struggles with authority, in their own voice and dialect, and with a seriousness once reserved for very different characters. His novels include The Busconductor Hines and A Disaffection, before the book that made his name.
The Booker and the row
In 1994 Kelman won the Booker Prize for How Late It Was, How Late, the story of Sammy, an ex-convict who wakes blind after a beating. The win caused a storm over the book’s use of strong, everyday language, and remains one of the most talked-about in the prize’s history. He was the first Scottish writer to win it, later followed by Douglas Stuart. Admired for his honesty and his refusal to soften his characters or his politics, Kelman has been called the greatest living British novelist.
Related questions
What is James Kelman famous for?
His novels about working-class Glasgow, written in the city’s vernacular, and for winning the 1994 Booker Prize with How Late It Was, How Late.
Why was Kelman’s Booker win controversial?
The winning novel used a great deal of strong, everyday language, which some judges and critics objected to, sparking a very public row.
Was James Kelman the first Scot to win the Booker Prize?
Yes. He was the first Scottish writer to win it, in 1994. Douglas Stuart became the second in 2020.