Five Letters From an Eastern Empire

Describing etiquette, government, irrigation, education, clogs, kites, rumour, poetry, justice, massage, town-planning, sex and ventriloquism in an obsolete nation Alasdair Gray was born in 1934. He obtained a diploma in Design and Mural Painting in 1957 and has since earned his living in Glasgow, mostly by painting and writing. Much of his fiction is published in Penguin, including 1982 Janine, Poor Things, Ten Tales Tall & True and Unlikely Stories, Mostly, from which Five Letters from an Eastern Empire is taken. His new novel, A History Maker, is forthcoming in Penguin.Cover illustration by Alasdair Gray