Born in Kyle : a love letter tae an Ayrshire childhood

Kay, Billy

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Summary

In Born in Kyle Kay goes back to his own linguistic and cultural roots and celebrates a sense of place and belonging in his native Galston in Ayrshire’s Irvine Valley. Looking back, Kay realises that his was the last of the pre-television generations, and life was lived in a strong Scots-speaking environment which would be eroded when television in English was beamed into every household from the early 1960s onwards. In a vivid, gutsy and realistic Scots prose shot through with humour, Kay brings alive the characters he grew up with, some in personally recalled memoirs, others in short stories which bring out a history and a literary history inherited by local folk going back hundreds of years. This is his love letter to working class life in small town Scotland. Naebody has duin mair than Billy Kay tae mak fowk awaur o the pouer an beauty o their guid Scots tongue, an tae gie it its richtfu place at the hert o the national culture. In Born in Kyle, Kay gaes back tae his ain linguistic ruits in the toun o Gawston in Ayrshire’s Irvine Valley, an scrieves vieve memoirs o growin up there in the saicont hauf o the 20th century. But he duis mair than that in a steirin mell o creative non-fiction an gleg short stories that create a sense o place wi a historie gaun back hunners o years an a sense o belangin for aw the fowk that appear here; fae glaikit gomerils tae wice worthies, fae guid sowels tae sleekit nyaffs, fae braw lassies tae gallus laddies, fae heidbangers tae fitba pioneers! Billy Kay lues the airt an the fowk he cam fae, sae the lowe o this shines bricht in this, his celebration o wha we are.