William McIlvanney remembered

Ten years after the great writer's death, I republish a personal appreciation

Ten years ago this coming week we lost William McIlvanney, one of Scotland’s most cherished writers. He was 79.

Willie was a novelist, and a fine one at that. But the high esteem in which he was held in the country of his birth owed more to his character than his literary output.

In essays and newspaper columns in 1980s and 1990s, when Scotland struggled …