by Ian Todd
“I’d rather die than be called ‘one of you,’” Morven hid hissed back, as George grabbed her by the wrist and twisted it, letting oot a laugh as she yelped in pain before managing tae break free fae his grip.
“Don’t worry, George, she’ll learn soon enough where her bed is feathered,” Cameron hid sneered, as she ran doon the drive towards Culrain and hame.
“Now, listen, lass. You’ve just got to accept that this place is not the place for someone like Paul. You have to let him go...you’re young...you’ve got your whole life ahead of you.”
”But I don’t want to lose him, Innes,” Morven said, her eyes filling up.
“I know, lass,” Whitey said, putting her erm aroond her, as the car came tae a screeching stoap, amidst a cloud ae dust at the tap ae the brae.
They watched the boys stumble oot ae the car and look doon at them. Wan-eye trotted aff up tae meet Paul coming doon the wee curved drive. Paul bent doon and scratched the dug’s left ear, before proceeding towards them. Whitey hid awready brought Paul’s packed bag and guitar doon tae the front step ae the croft fur him. He stoapped three feet in front ae them, his face a bit flushed looking. He looked at Morven and gied her a wee smile and then o’er at Whitey and Innes.
“If it’s okay wae yersels, Ah widnae mind hinging aboot a wee while longer and finding oot mair aboot this crofting malarkey,” Paul said tae them, as he turned and waved tae the boys, who wur staunin watching, up at the car.
Withoot a word, The Mankys jumped back intae the Escort and sped aff towards Ardgay, tooting the horn loudly as the car disappeared oot ae sight roond the bend at the old schoolhoose.
“Oh, Paul!” Morven and Whitey cried oot thegither, before rushing across and hugging him, tears in their eyes.
“Welcome home, laddie,” Innes beamed, as Paul looked between the sobbing heids ae the two wummin in his life, towards Culrain Castle in the distance…and George Sellar.
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Parly Road is the first book in The Glasgow Chronicles series by Ian Todd and is also available on Amazon Kindle:
It is the summer of 1965 and things are looking up for ten-year-old Johnboy Taylor in the Townhead district of Glasgow. Not only has he made two new pals, who have recently come to his school after being expelled from one of the local Catholic schools, but their dream of owning their own pigeon loft or ‘dookit’ and competing with the city’s grown-up ‘doo-men’ in the sport they love, could soon become a reality. The only problem is that The Mankys don’t have the dosh to pay for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Lady Luck begins to shine down on them when Pat Molloy, aka The Big Man, one of Glasgow’s top heavies asks them to do him a wee favour. The Mankys are soon embroiled in an adult world of gangsters, police corruption, violence and crime.
Meanwhile, Johnboy’s mother, Helen Taylor is busy trying to keep one step ahead of the local Provi-cheque men and organising a group of local women to demonstrate against the Corporation’s Sheriff officer’s warrant sales.
Set against the backdrop of a condemned tenement slum area, the fate of which has already been decided upon as it stands in the way of the city’s new Inner Ring Road motorway development, the boys soon realise that to survive on the streets, they have to stay one step ahead of those in authority. The only problem for The Mankys is working out who’s really in charge.
Parly Road is full of the shadiest characters that 1960s Glasgow has to offer and takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey that has been described as irreverently hilarious, bad-assed, poignantly sad and difficult to put down.
Run Johnboy Run – The Glasgow Chronicles 2 is also available on Amazon Kindle:
It is 1968 and The Mankys are back with a vengeance after thirteen-year-old Johnboy Taylor is confronted by a ghost from his past. The only problem is, he’s just been sentenced to 3 years at Thistle Park Approved School, which houses Scotland’s wildest teen tearaways. Without his liberty, Johnboy is in no position to determine whether the devastating revelation is a figment of his vivid imagination or whether dark forces are conspiring against him.
Elsewhere in the city, Glasgow crime lord, Pat Molloy, aka The Big Man, is plotting to topple those who he believes were responsible for putting him out of the city’s thriving ‘Doo’ business three years earlier. Unfortunately for him, The Irish Brigade, a group of corrupt police inspectors, who rule the city with an iron fist, are not about to stand by and allow anyone to dip their fingers into their honey pot, without a fight.
Meanwhile, Helen Taylor, Johnboy’s mother, has come up with a dangerous plan that she believes will finally overturn The City Corporation’s policy of selling their tenants’ household goods through humiliating public warrant sales. Reluctantly, she is forced to join forces with The Glasgow Echo’s sleazy top crime reporter, Sammy ‘The Rat’ Elliot, whose shadowy reputation of having more than one master makes him feared and reviled by the underworld and the establishment in equal measure.
Run Johnboy Run is an explosive tale of city crime in 1960s Glasgow, involving a heady mix of establishment leaders and gangsters, who will use anyone to keep control of the city’s lucrative underworld. The only problem is, can anyone really be trusted?
With more faces than the town clock, Run Johnboy Run dredges up the best scum the city has to offer and throws them into the wackiest free-for-all double-crossing battle that Glasgow has witnessed in a generation and The Mankys are never far from where the action is.
You have just read The Lost Boy And The Gardener’s Daughter, which is the third book in The Glasgow Chronicles series
The Mattress – The Glasgow Chronicles 4 is also available on Amazon Kindle:
In this, the fourth book of The Glasgow Chronicles series, dark clouds are gathering over Springburn’s tenements, in the lead up to the Christmas holiday period of 1971. The Mankys, now one of Glasgow’s foremost up and coming young criminal gangs, are in trouble…big trouble…and there doesn’t seem to be anything that their charismatic leader, Tony Gucci, can do about it. For the past year, The Mankys have been under siege from Tam and Toby Simpson, notorious leaders of The Simpson gang from neighbouring Possilpark, who have had enough of The Mankys, and have decided to wipe them out, once and for all.
To make matters worse, Tony’s mentor, Pat Molloy, aka The Big Man and his chief lieutenant, Wan-bob Brown, have disappeared from the Glasgow underworld scene, resulting in Tony having to deal with Shaun Murphy, who has taken charge of The Big Man’s criminal empire in The Big Man’s absence. Everyone knows that Shaun Murphy hates The Mankys even more than The Simpsons do.
As if this isn’t bad enough, Johnboy Taylor and Silent Smith, two of the key Manky players, are currently languishing in solitary confinement in Polmont Borstal. As Johnboy awaits his release on Hogmanay, he has endless hours to contemplate how The Mankys have ended up in their current dilemma, whilst being unable to influence the feared conclusion that is unravelling back in Springburn.
Meanwhile, police sergeants Paddy McPhee, known as ‘The Stalker’ on the streets for reputedly always getting his man and his partner, Finbar ‘Bumper’ O’Callaghan, have been picking up rumours on the streets for some time that The Simpsons have been entering The Big Man’s territory of Springburn, behind Shaun Murphy’s back, in pursuit of The Mankys.
In this dark, gritty, fast-paced thriller of tit-for-tat violence, The Stalker soon realises that the stage is being set for the biggest showdown in Glasgow’s underworld history, when one of The Mankys is brutally stabbed to death outside The Princess Bingo Hall in Springburn’s Gourlay Street.
With time running out, Tony Gucci has to find a way of contacting and luring The Big Man into becoming involved in the fight, without incurring the wrath of Shaun Murphy. To do this, Tony and The Mankys have to come up with a plan that will bring all the key players into the ring, whi
lst at the same time, allow The Mankys to avenge the murder of a friend.
Once again, some of Glasgow’s most notorious and shadiest ‘duckers and divers’ come together to provide this sometimes humorous, sometimes heart-wrenching and often violent tale of chaos and survival on the streets of 1970s Glasgow.
Still to be published by Ian Todd on Amazon Kindle:
The Wummin
Dumfries