Sailmaker: Context (SQA National 5 English): Revision Note
Exam code: X824 75
Sailmaker historical context
Sailmaker, written by Alan Spence in 1982, is set in Glasgow in the 1960s
Glasgow was considered one the major industrial manufacturing cities in the world in the 19th and early parts of the 20th centuries
From 1870 until the start of World War I, Glasgow produced almost one fifth of the world's ocean-going ships
In World War II, Glasgow’s factories and cargo ships were based in shipyards on the River Clyde
By the 1960s, a lack of investment in industry led to severe economic decline
Previous job opportunities and apprenticeships in construction, painting, and shipbuilding, for example, became few and far between
By the 1960s only a few shipyards remained
How this links to Sailmaker | |
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Industry in Glasgow | Davie, a former sailmaker, recites a poem: “Glasgow made the Clyde, the Clyde made Glasgow”. Davie tells Alec that he “worked on the Queen Mary” ship and that he worked on “destroyers durin the War” making “gun-covers, awnings, tarpaulins”. His work as a “tick man” (debt-collector) exemplifies the changes in Glasgow by the 1960s, where not only are skilled men like Davie forced to abandon their crafts and trades, but are employed collecting the debts of their equally bereft peers. |
Sailmaker social context
The working class
Many Scottish working-class boys left school early to learn a trade, especially before the raising of the school-leaving age
Typically, sons would take on the same trade as their fathers
A drinking or “pub” culture accompanied these trades:
Football and boxing were traditional forms of entertainment among the working classes
Rugby and cricket were considered sports that belonged in higher classes
Among the working class, education was not always highly regarded
By the 1960s, education played an increasingly important role in enabling social mobility for working-class young people
How this links to Sailmaker | |
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Social class | Alec is proud of his father’s trade as a sailmaker rather than of his job as a “tick man”. Due to his father’s struggles with employment and income the pair live in poverty. Alec works hard at school and receives a bursary to a boys’ school. Ian is critical of this, suggesting that rugby is for “toffeenosed… snobs”. But Alec’s father believes education is the best chance for Alec’s social mobility: he tells Alec to get a job in which he never has to take off his tie. By the end of the play, Alec reads from a book, “The British Working Man”. The book states, “He is perhaps at his best in skilled individual occupations as, for example, in the many aspects of shipbuilding or engineering”. |
Football and boxing | Alec and Ian play football throughout the play, and Alec has a scrapbook for “Rangers” (a professional football club in Glasgow) photos. Davie and Billy debate their favourite teams, “Rangers” and “Celtic”. Alec and his father play at boxing. Davie tells Alec about boxing champion Benny Lynch (to whom he loaned money just before he died). But by Act Two, when Ian is still playing football, Alec no longer joins him, which may symbolise Alec’s growing distance from his working-class identity. |
Religion
While Catholicism was an established and dominant faith in medieval Scotland, it was denounced by the Protestant Reformation in 1560:
After this point, Scotland became largely Presbyterian
Historically, Glasgow was divided between Catholics and Protestants
This divide was intensified after a 19th-century surge in Irish immigration
Rivalry between Irish Catholics who supported the Celtic football team and Scottish Protestants supporting Rangers deepened the divide
How this links to Sailmaker | |
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Religion | Billy and Davie bring religion into their argument about their football team colours: Davie asks, “How can a colour be bad? Just because Catholics wear it” and Billy replies, “It’s maybe no bad in itself, but they Catholics have made it bad”. Meanwhile, Alec struggles with his religious beliefs: he begins to attend the “Mission” and learn “Bible knowledge”. Ian mocks him for it, saying he is “soft in the head”. Alec, though, finds it helps him deal with his grief. He says about the “Mission”: “It was good to feel good. It had come on stronger since my mother had died.” |
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners reward answers that address key aspects of the text’s genre. To do this, you should try to explain how your analysis and evidence connect to:
Autobiographical drama:
For instance, Spence’s own working-class life in Glasgow
Coming-of-age stories or bildungsroman
Dramatic traditions:
For example, realist literature
Sailmaker literary context
Alan Spence, born in Glasgow in 1947, is a poet, playwright and novelist
He has been Writer-in-Residence at Edinburgh University and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen
In 1990, Spence wrote his first book of poetry called Glasgow Zen
His work portrays working-class Glasgow life
The realist play Sailmaker was written in 1982
Spence says it is “directly autobiographical”:
His father was a sailmaker who then worked as a storeman like Davie
Like his character Alec, Spence’s mother died when he was 11 and his father struggled to deal with it
Spence says of his play: “Maybe the play was me coming to terms with my father and being more sympathetic to him”
Sailmaker is a coming-of-age story and shares features with traditional bildungsromans as it portrays a young boy growing up and finding independence:
Spence, like Alec, attended university, not common for a working-class boy in the 1960s
How this links to Sailmaker | |
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Autobiographical bildungsroman | The play depicts family circumstances much like Spence’s own: his protagonist must come to terms with his mother’s death and his turbulent relationship with his father. The play is set in Glasgow and illustrates the unrealised dreams of his father, a sailmaker: Davie’s strong bonds with this tradition are conveyed in a poem: “Glasgow made the Clyde, the Clyde made Glasgow. / Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. / Ah had a yacht / Y’ought tae see it.” |
Sources
Spence, A. (2008), Sailmaker, from Spence, A. and Cooper, J. (2012), Sailmaker Plus, Hodder Gibson
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