Coronet Books Series

'His face made a fist at the world. The twined remnant of umbilicus projected vulnerably. Hands, feet and prick. He had come equipped for the job.'

Newborn Conn Docherty, raw as a fresh wound, lies between his parents in their tenement room, with no birthright but a life's labour in the pits of his small town. But the world is changing, and, lying next to him, Conn's father Tam has decided that his son's life will be different from his own.

Gritty, dark and tender, McIlvanney's Docherty is a modern classic.

Papers of Tony Veitch

by William McIlvanney

Published 1 April 1983

'Laidlaw is back, the Glasgow policeman with bowels who knows his jungle like the back of his own horny hand. A stabbed thug, a deathbed gasp from an old wino, lungs scorified by the weedkiller his bottle was laced with, a frightened Italian drab, a tilted lady looking for off-limits thrills, the escaped prey - a mosaic takes brutal shape ...the interpretation of this argot-rich underworld, bullies and hard men, victims and tourists, and of the very nature of violence, is a powerful achievement' The Observer

Laidlaw

by William McIlvanney

Published 1 January 1977

The titles in the "Textplus" series, designed to reflect the changing nature of English Literature at advanced post-GCSE level, offer the complete text with a specially commissioned introduction and compact background notes placing the work in historical and critical context. Together, these components are intended to open up the text for students, allowing them to plot their own course of study, to plan extended projects, to compare writers' perspectives on similar themes and to relate works to key social and historical phenomena.