Rodge Glass
Rodge Glass
RODGE GLASS was born in 1978 and is originally from Cheshire, though he has now been in Scotland since 1997, and since then most of his family have scattered all over the globe. Rodge is the product of an Orthodox Jewish Primary School, an 11+ All Boys Grammar School, a Co-Ed Private School, a Monk-sponsored Catholic College, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Strathclyde University and finally Glasgow University where he was tutored by James Kelman, Janice Galloway and Alasdair Gray, and began writing his first novel in 2002. This became No Fireworks, a book about Jewish identity which revolved around confused protagonist Abraham Stone, a disguised worst case scenario of the author’s own life if it all went horribly wrong – three times divorced, alcoholic and lacking in anything to believe in. The book was published by Faber & Faber in 2005 and was nominated for four awards, but won none of them. Rodge’s second novel, Hope for Newborns, is a tragic comedy about two young people who have seen enough of the world to realise they want nothing to do with it in its current form. So they set up Hope for Newborns Plc, a fraudulent but successful internet charity. It is due for release, again with Faber & Faber, in June 2008.
From 2002-2005 Rodge spent three years as personal assistant to Alasdair Gray before embarking on an unorthodox, messy book on his life and work. Rodge has known Alasdair for a decade now and has filled many roles in that time – student, secretary, signature forger, driver, researcher, advisor, tea maker and paper boy – here he attempts one more. Alasdair Gray: A Secretary’s Biography is every bit as individual as its subject, and cheekily takes Boswell’s infamous portrait of Samuel Johnson as its template. Gray has co-operated with the project throughout but it is entirely independent – the subject has agreed not to read a word of the result until public release, and has promised not to sue once he has seen it. The book will be published by Bloomsbury in September 2008 and is currently being turned into a PhD, with added academic essays, extra footnotes, and minus the fart jokes.