My friend Allan Borrell, who has died aged 69 after a long-term illness, was a man of many talents: printer, writer, socialist organiser and house husband.
I met Allan in 1968, at the beginning of his second year in university, in a tutorial class on the British constitution. He was late. We were in mid-discussion when the door opened and what appeared to be an extra from a spaghetti western walked in. He had long hair, a large moustache, wore cowboy boots and was wrapped in a bright, gaudy, striped Mexican poncho. It was a pivotal year for political and cultural change and Allan was clearly ahead of the curve.
He was born in Perth, the elder child of Isabella (nee McLennan) and Frank Borrell. Frank was a plasterer and Isabella an assistant in a drapers’ shop. Allan attended Perth Academy from 1958 until 1965, then reluctantly worked in a bank before moving to Glasgow where, in 1967, he enrolled at Strathclyde University to study psychology and economics.
Inspired by the tumultuous events of 1968, Allan wanted to be part of the optimistic movement for change and joined the International Marxist Group.
He worked as a teacher and social worker after graduating in 1971, at the same time shifting his political allegiance to the International Socialists, forerunner of the Socialist Workers party. He threw himself into building support for workers who fought to protect their jobs and communities, from the work-in at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in 1971, through the years of the Anti-Nazi League, set up in 1975 to oppose racism and the rise of far-right organisations, to the Winter of Discontent in 1978-79. For some of the time he became a full-time organiser for the party in Clydeside and during the 1980 steel workers’ strike he moved to Middlesbrough to organise support there.
In 1981 he moved again, this time to London, where he retrained as a printer and before long was managing the press at East End Offset, which printed Socialist Worker, Private Eye and the Morning Star, among other commercial and political publications.
It was then that he met the journalist Harriet Sherwood, whom he married in 1984. Their son, Frankie, was born in 1985, followed by a daughter, Rachel, in 1988. Allan left East End Offset in 1991 to devote his time to bringing up the children and running the house, interspersed with short periods of employment as a printer or handyman. From 1996 to 1998 he reviewed computer games and educational software for the Guardian.
In 2005 Allan moved back to Glasgow, where he spent time with veteran socialists and Celtic football club supporters in Heraghty’s bar. He not only renewed old friendships but also a season ticket to Celtic Park. The huddle in their customary corner of the bar was also a book group, which early on discussed and debated Nordic noir.
Just over a year ago, after respiratory and other medical problems had curtailed his mobility, he decided to move back south, to Woolwich, to be nearer Harriet and his children. Although Allan’s condition was chronic, his death was unexpected.
Allan is survived by Harriet, Frankie and Rachel, and his sister, Janice.
