No Mean City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
No Mean City is a 1935 novel by H. Kingsley Long, a journalist, and Alexander McArthur, an unemployed worker. It is an account of life in the Gorbals, a run-down slum district of Glasgow (now mostly demolished, but re-built in a contemporary style) with the hard men and the razor gangs.
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d3/No_Mean_City_Novel.jpg/220px-No_Mean_City_Novel.jpg)
Whatever its literary or other merits, for many years it was regarded as the definitive account of life in Glasgow, and its title became a byword. It originated from a set of conversations sent to Longman's publishing firm from McArthur which was then sent to Kingsley Long to build into a complete novel.
Its title is a quotation from the Bible, where Paul the Apostle says that he is a citizen of "no mean city", (no obscure or insignificant city) i.e. he was a Roman citizen, even though he was a Jew from Tarsus.
This tale of Glasgow gang lands is set in the inter-war period (1920s) and is a depiction of working class life for young and old, male and female and gives insight into both the private and public issues faced by the dwellers of the city.[1]
The title is also the name of a song written by Mike Moran and sung by Maggie Bell used as the theme music for the STV detective drama series Taggart.