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John Joy Bell

Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection

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John Joy Bell

John Joy Bell (1871-1934), journalist and author.

Bell began to write verse while a student at the University of Glasgow, and in 1896 became editor of Glasgow University Magazine. In 1898 he was appointed assistant editor of the Scots Pictorial and continued to write articles for newspapers and magazines in London and Glasgow.

Wee MacGreegor, Bell's collection of humorous sketches of Glasgow life which were originally written as articles for the Evening Times, was published in 1902. It was a phenomenal success and 250,000 copies were sold. He went on to pen further episodes in the life of Wee MacGreegor and the Robinson family (and the camel-faced Mrs Purdie!), all of them written in Glasgow dialect and presenting sentimental and couthy accounts of life among the city's "respectable" working classes. Readers were able to follow Wee Macgreegor's adventures from childhood to youth, and even into the First World War trenches in 1915 with Wee Macgreegor enlists.

Reference: Mitchell Library, GC f920.04 WHO

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning

Keywords:
authors, Evening Times, Glasgow University Magazine, journalists, novelists, Scots Pictorial, Wee MacGreegor



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