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The Ripening Time
The Ripening Time - revised and adapted by Catherine MacLeod from the original novel by Alistair Mair, first published by William Heinemann in 1970. Released in paperback as The Tomato Man, 1972. 'Alistair Mair's novel examines the conflicts of parent-child, husband-wife relationships in all their hypocrisy, durability and underlying violence. He has made a magnetically readable novel, touching and frightening by turns, with all the authentic and baffling twists of human behaviour.'~Vintage Editorial Reviews of The Ripening Time, 1970 - 1972:'...a tenacious piece of realism...' ~ The Sunday Times"Strong and subtle characterisation ... admirable authenticity." ~ Sunday Telegraph"Since the author worked as a doctor in Scotland he must know his own folk, but it comes as a shock to sheltered English readers." ~ Observer'As an observer he is first rate ... His characters too are splendidly defined...' ~ The Illustrated London News~Glasgow, 1960. A time of bright new beginnings ...The Gorbals tenements are being demolished and gleaming new estates are carving their way through the green fields that surround the city.Tom, raised in a Glasgow tenement, is a sheltered, self-contained lad who drifts through life while his widowed mother worries about his inability to find the right girl. Then Mary from the new Easterton estate takes him in hand.Surrounded by all the sparkling new appliances of hire-purchase matrimony, the recession begins to bite. Long hours, loneliness and cruelty lead Tom to drift off in another direction, down the garden to the safe haven of his greenhouse.A man needs a hobby, and surely gardening never hurt a soul ...~The original hardback novel The Ripening Time and the paperback entitled The Tomato Man are out of print but can still be found in Abe books or on Amazon through quality collectors' bookshops worldwide.
349 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1970
6 people want to read
About the author
Alistair Mair
21 books4 followersAn award-winning author of ten novels, latterly published by William Heinemann Ltd, Alistair Mair was President of Scottish Pen from 1965 - 1970. The Alistair Mair literary estate is represented by Camilla Shestopal of Peters Fraser & Dunlop, to whom all enquiries should be addressed.
About the author:
Born of mixed Highland and Lowland parentage and brought up in Ayrshire, Scotland, Alistair Mair was educated at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh and studied medicine at Glasgow University.
After graduation in 1947 he worked for a year in a Glasgow hospital and spent two years in the RAF. As a young man he enjoyed travelling, and said of his travels,
'I generally travelled alone and always tried to live – as nearly as one can – as an ordinary person, trying to speak the language, however badly, and attempting to get to know the people and their way of life at a personal level. In this I succeeded best in Spain and, possibly for this reason, developed a deep affection and regard for the country, the people, their literature and their art.’
He married in 1952 and set up in general practice near Edinburgh. During the next ten years of unremitting work as a doctor he began to publish his first books and a son and daughter were born to the Mairs.
In 1962 he decided to make writing a full-time occupation and went with his family to live in an Argyllshire village on the west coast of Scotland. He had a deep and abiding affection for the Scottish Highlands and said at the time,
‘There is, in theory, time to read, time to write, time to lie in the sun if you feel like it. The mystery is that life has become even busier than before.’
He is survived by his daughter Diana and her two children.
About the author:
Born of mixed Highland and Lowland parentage and brought up in Ayrshire, Scotland, Alistair Mair was educated at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh and studied medicine at Glasgow University.
After graduation in 1947 he worked for a year in a Glasgow hospital and spent two years in the RAF. As a young man he enjoyed travelling, and said of his travels,
'I generally travelled alone and always tried to live – as nearly as one can – as an ordinary person, trying to speak the language, however badly, and attempting to get to know the people and their way of life at a personal level. In this I succeeded best in Spain and, possibly for this reason, developed a deep affection and regard for the country, the people, their literature and their art.’
He married in 1952 and set up in general practice near Edinburgh. During the next ten years of unremitting work as a doctor he began to publish his first books and a son and daughter were born to the Mairs.
In 1962 he decided to make writing a full-time occupation and went with his family to live in an Argyllshire village on the west coast of Scotland. He had a deep and abiding affection for the Scottish Highlands and said at the time,
‘There is, in theory, time to read, time to write, time to lie in the sun if you feel like it. The mystery is that life has become even busier than before.’
He is survived by his daughter Diana and her two children.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 3, 2012
Extraordinary writing.
The Tomato Man by Alistair Mair, in its most recent incarnation by his daughter Catherine MacLeod is a gem. The writing and the characters span three generations of MacLeods and the authors do not spare any character. They now live in my mind with an unvarnished reality as seen by a third-person narrator. They are plain, but complex, unembellished folks and well reflect working class life in Glasgow from the WWII era of Thomas MacLeod, the father, to the 1963 life of Thomas MacLeod, the son. The writing is fine, understated and elegant and captures nuances brilliantly. When Jessie "sighed and took her hand away...," Thomas the younger "felt the loss of it like a wound." The "small brass nameplate" which says "Tom Macleod...still clearly, though twenty-seven years of polishing had blurred the definition of the letters more than twenty-two years of widowhood had blurred her memory of the man whose name it had been." This enduring brass nameplate becomes a metaphor for Thomas himself as he emerges as a man to develop his own ideas, crippled relationships and, of course, his own garden. The comparison to DH Lawrence by the prior reviewer is apt. There is a fatalism and inevitability here as the characters play the roles for which they have been groomed.
The Tomato Man by Alistair Mair, in its most recent incarnation by his daughter Catherine MacLeod is a gem. The writing and the characters span three generations of MacLeods and the authors do not spare any character. They now live in my mind with an unvarnished reality as seen by a third-person narrator. They are plain, but complex, unembellished folks and well reflect working class life in Glasgow from the WWII era of Thomas MacLeod, the father, to the 1963 life of Thomas MacLeod, the son. The writing is fine, understated and elegant and captures nuances brilliantly. When Jessie "sighed and took her hand away...," Thomas the younger "felt the loss of it like a wound." The "small brass nameplate" which says "Tom Macleod...still clearly, though twenty-seven years of polishing had blurred the definition of the letters more than twenty-two years of widowhood had blurred her memory of the man whose name it had been." This enduring brass nameplate becomes a metaphor for Thomas himself as he emerges as a man to develop his own ideas, crippled relationships and, of course, his own garden. The comparison to DH Lawrence by the prior reviewer is apt. There is a fatalism and inevitability here as the characters play the roles for which they have been groomed.
December 24, 2017
I ordered sample of this book after reading daisy chains of silence,soon as I finished sample had to order it. Enjoyed everything about this book and found the characters real and flawed. I quite literally gasped towards the end at the unexpected turn of events.when I’m kept reading my kindle for two hours on Christmas eve(neglecting my mummy Christmas duties)this tells me I’m hooked. Will def check out other books by this aurthor
July 17, 2012
Exquisite: that's the one word that describes this finely remastered masterpiece. If you yearn for the immersion that every now and then an author can provide, this Sixties-based classic will not disappoint.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews