Norman Maclean’s The Leper’s Bell published

For anyone who saw last night’s mesmeric programme Tormod, on BBC ALBA – and for all those everywhere who are interested in Norman / Tormod MacLean, his autobiography, The Lepers Bell, has just been published by Birlinn.

The book is compulsive reading, delving into the nooks and crannies of a self-observed life opened again to MacLean himself in this journey into the cave of memory. Interestingly, the Open Sesame to this cave was always the act of sitting down at his computer. Until these moments, he continually doubted whether he would recover anything.

This Gaelic/Govan comedian, singer, musician, composer, actor and author, embedded in the hearts of highland and other audiences, has been virtually a lifetime drunk, the most enduring of his relationships existing in a complex bond with his creativity and his need to entertain – to find at least the passing affection of those who warmed to his poetic soul, his wit and his transparent charm.

The book, as the programme, is honest in its account of the dark as well as the light. MacLean neither apologises nor exalts. He takes responsibility objectively and the hurts inflicted on him, which made drink a welcome companion, seem to have left no anger and no bitterness.

Writing the book brought understanding to MacLean himself, sharing it with us at the same time.

Even if you’ve never heard of Norman MacLean, this is a book worth reading.  In a way he is Everyman -  a very gifted Everyman but a man for a’ that. Much of his story is other people’s story too but few could tell it like this.

Details of the book are: The Leper’s Bell: The Autobiography of a Changeling, by Norman MacLean. ISBN-13: 978 1 84158 827 8. And it is available from Amazon.

For those who missed the hour long programme transmitted by BBC ALBA last nightat 9.00pm, it can be recovered here, from BBC iPlayer for 7 days.