Category: Biography
Sunset On The Clyde
The Last Summers on the Water
By Duncan Graham
The 1950s were the heyday of the Clyde pleasure-steamer, when hordes of ordinary folk went 'doon the watter' to Dunoon, Largs and Millport to the strains of accordian and fiddle. Others went with suitcases to Rothesay for the Fair, while the well-to-do filled brass-bound trunks and headed for the boarding houses of Brodick and Whiting Bay.
The resort piers were hives of activity and the crack was good as the steamers' arrival heralded the main talking point of the day. Duncan Graham's frequently hilarious memoir of his days as a student purser aboard The Talisman, Prince Edward and the Caledonia is filled with larger-than-life characters including dashing skippers who raced for the best berths, frustrated Chief Engineers, wheeler-dealer stewards and ladies with more than a mere day trip on their mind!
In this new revised paperback edition of Graham's best-selling memoir, the last days of steaming on the Clyde are recounted as they really were.
CONTENTS: Introduction, The Die is Cast -Tantalising Glimpses 1946-52 - Inversnaid, Loch Lomond and the Last of the Edwardians - Friday at Ardlui - The Cowal and Transition - Maid of Argyll - Piers, Places, People and Paddlers -The Talisman &mdash Anything But! - Jupiter - A Flyer at Last &mdash Jeanie Deans - Maid of the Loch &mdash Haste Ye Back - The Real Queen Mary - Wider Horizons &mdash Lakes and Steamers - The Fleet List - Further Reading
Key Features
New paperback edition of Graham's best-selling memoir; the last days of steaming on the Clyde are recounted as they really were.