In Kilmarnock, the place that gives its name to the most hallowed edition of Robert Burns’s poems, they remember another two of its anointed scribes. In the Goldberry, the handsome old tavern that sits beside the Kilmarnock Water, an article written by Hugh McIlvanney about the town that bore him hangs on a wall. The opening paragraph bears the unmistakable imprint of the master craftsman. “It is disturbing to visit your home town and find it disappearing up its own planning permission.” On another wall hangs a passage written by his brother, the celebrated Scottish crime novelist, William.
Betty Brown, current proprietor of the Goldberry, remembers the two McIlvanneys vividly. “This place has been in my family since 1958 and Hugh and Willie along with their brother Neil were regulars here. Even after they had found fame and success they still remained attached to their home town. Hugh was a great friend of my dad’s and would pop in here whenever he was up from London visiting family or covering sporting events in Scotland. We’re very proud of our association with the family.”
An acute awareness of the social and industrial landscapes that formed his sporting subjects was a recurring theme in much of Hugh’s prose and broadcast work. His introduction to a documentary about Scotland’s greatest football managers conveys a characteristic humanity and compassion for the working-class environments of his heroes.
“When most people think of Scottish football they think of Glasgow and there’s nothing unnatural about that. However to find the communities that produced Busby, Stein and Shankly, it is necessary to travel out from the great city on the Clyde to other places where jobs are scarce now but the ethos of the people was forged in a time when this was one of the most intensively industrialised regions on the face of the Earth.”
Kilmarnock and its social and cultural landscape seemed to have shaped McIlvanney’s values and the genius of his sculpted prose. His achievements, together with those of his brother, have also bequeathed a remarkable literary bounty to this town. The novelists Zoe Strachan and Graeme Macrae Burnet, who was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2016, sprang from here. And Liam McIlvanney, nephew of Hugh and son of William, has also become an award-winning novelist with a catalogue of critically acclaimed work behind him.
Kilmarnock has also produced more than its fair share of journalists. One of them is Stephen Khan, editor of the news analysis website The Conversation. He said: “Hugh and Willie inspired every one of us. Basically, if you were from Kilmarnock and you had a vague interest in any kind of writing you wanted to be like them.
“Previously, there had been a feeling that this world was closed and inaccessible but because of them you felt it was possible. And whenever any of us met them they were so encouraging and helpful.”
Hugh’s beloved Ayrshire is currently experiencing something of a football renaissance. Kilmarnock FC are running Celtic and Rangers close for a league title they last won in 1965 while neighbours Ayr United are the unlikeliest of front-runners for promotion to the top tier of Scottish football. And in the nearby mining village of Auchinleck the local non-league club, Auchinleck Talbot, have reached the last 16 of the Scottish Cup. It would have been grand to have seen an enterprising sports editor send Hugh in his pomp back to the motherland to observe these deeds and ennoble them with his stately words.
In journalistic circles the sports section of a newspaper is often described affectionately as the toy department. Any pages bearing Hugh McIlvanney’s work were instantly elevated to the shop window.
