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Hugh Savage (1918–96) had the greatest hatred for a system of society that denies there is any such thing as society, that stigmatises the needy, that practises the philosophy of greed and encourages the triumph of the powerful. Hence he became an activist and Communist Party member as a young man, but having no regard either for the dictats of central control, resigned his Party card.

Born Up A Close is a memoir of growing up in twentieth century industrial Scotland where the politics of social inequality were every day evident. Hugh Savage recounts his early years in Glasgow’s Brigton and paints a touching yet realistic picture of tenement life and the physical hardships of the world of work. His later politicisation during World War II while in the employ of John Brown’s shipyard is revealing.

As James Kelman writes in his introduction, Hugh Savage’s account helps to reclaim aspects of Clydeside’s radical history. In an age when ‘capitalism has won’, and when a sanitization of Glasgow’s radical past has been to the fore, popular memory is essential to a sense of history, justice and independent thought.

'irrepressible in its energy and intellectual enterprise'

The Scotsman

'a well-told tale characterised by broad humanity as well as being a hard-edged political critique'

The Herald

'devoid of sentimentality, nostalgia and self-obsession. . . (but) dignified and authentic'

Scottish Review of Books