It’s All Writ Out For You: The Life and Work of Scottie Wilson (Inscribed by George Melly)

Inscribed on the half-title page by George Melly: “For Claire during our haunting of the 3rd affectionately George Melly,” with a small hand-drawn eye. Note by previous owner on front endpaper: “Did STV programme with George Melly on 11 May 1986.” With annotations by the author throughout.

‘Kierkegaard, Kafka, Connolly, Compton-Burnett, Sartre, “Scottie” Wilson. Who are they? What do they want?’ asks a bewildered character in Evely Waugh’s The Loved One. Scottie who? He was a Glaswegian Jew, nearly illiterate and fond of the bottle, who knocked about the world for forty years before discovering he could draw. He then created a realm of poetic beauty which was constantly threatened by demons that he called ‘Greedies’ and ‘Evils’. He has been labelled a Surrealist, a Naive, an Outsider, an Innocent. A solitary, introspective man with an utter lack of interest in anybody’s art but his own, his pictures wer collected by Picasso. By any reckoning he is one of the most bizarre British artists of the century. George Melly first encountered Scottie Wilson in the 1940s and was fascinated by the man and haunted by his art ever since. This is the most substantial and richly illustrated account of Scottie’s career that has yet appeared. ‘Life!-it’s all writ out for you – the moves you make …’ was one of Scottie’s favourite maxims. George Melly has unravelled most of the mysteries surrounding that life and provides a characteristically witty and enthusiastic appreciation of the remarkable pictures that it produced.