The Boy from Nowhere

The Boy from Nowhere
Gregor Fisher

Melanie Reid

The warm, funny memoir of Gregor Fisher, the much loved Scottish actor best known for Rab C. Nesbitt, told as he uncovers his dramatic family history.Growing up in the Glasgow suburbs, Gregor was 14 when he asked where he was christened and was told that he was adopted. But it wasn’t quite that simple. And so began an unfolding of truths, half-truths and polite cover-ups from his various families. In 2014 Gregor approached Times columnist Melanie Reid to help him tell his story. Together they travelled through the mining villages of central Scotland to uncover the mystery of his birth and early life. What emerged was a story of secrets, deception, tragic accidents and early death, coldness and rejection from the very people who should have cherished him most, but a welcome from the most unexpected of quarters.From the squalor of industrial Coatbridge after WW1 to his own 1950s Glasgow childhood, via a love letter found in the wallet of a dead man and meeting his sister outside lost luggage at Glasgow Central, Gregor shares his family story with warmth and blunt Scottish humour.

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Copyright (#ue0c8e00f-6140-5b79-b910-1aa102e71d7b)

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2015

FIRST EDITION

© Gregor Fisher and Melanie Reid 2015

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2015

Front jacket photograph supplied by the author, background © Shutterstock.com

Cover quote reproduced with kind permission of The Telegraph © Michael Deacon, The Telegraph

All picture section photos provided by Gregor Fisher except where indicated.

The Scotsman extract © The Scotsman

Nancy Banks-Smith/Guardian extract © Nancy Banks-Smith

While every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publishers would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future editions.

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Gregor Fisher and Melanie Reid assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

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Source ISBN: 978008150433

Ebook Edition © October 2015 ISBN: 9780008150464

Version: 2015-11-20

Dedication (#ue0c8e00f-6140-5b79-b910-1aa102e71d7b)

To my mother

Contents

Cover (#u27e7200a-45b5-5251-b024-934211e9c7c7)

Title Page (#ulink_442906f7-a491-56d6-9247-a29911b048ce)

Copyright (#ulink_f1c1a33f-5611-50f4-88ab-7a05f730c185)

Dedication (#ulink_ad209202-db66-5777-8619-c1be05b4c35b)

Family Tree (#ulink_c46c71c2-8aeb-5f83-8ec7-9e44663f7975)

Prologue (#ulink_e2a12e9c-aae1-5c81-bbb0-97fa5b3072a4)

1 The Curly-Haired Boy in the Corner (#ulink_4d3a1585-4104-59c4-84ed-1f5fe41ef433)

2 Fisher, You’re Playing Pooh-Bar (#ulink_18405c56-4a2a-5453-85a3-7ef32ec90a7f)

3 You Don’t Know Me But I’m Your Sister (#ulink_17ea6861-86f4-5780-b110-6e50bab0aa34)

4 I’d Like You to Move to the Colour Blue (#ulink_2e43a1e9-8101-5028-995b-c9efb0a5a0ce)

5 Eat the Ice Cream While It’s on Your Plate, Ladies and Gentlemen (#ulink_725ac334-c101-53e2-8251-0c3ea9e2dc70)

6 Aunt Ruby and the Red-Chip Gravel Drive (#ulink_c0c741db-3816-5dc8-8326-59d0035e8e16)

7 The Poem in the Wallet (#ulink_be313b15-d38e-50e1-9eea-575438034ef8)

8 Kit (#ulink_d3c484a7-50bc-53fd-a62b-4e1e6cf6cae0)

9 The Deil’s Awa’ Wi’ the Exciseman (#ulink_f330730f-c18d-5edf-bc20-f88e26cceaff)

10 Evening Comes, I Miss You More (#ulink_4b5f3cfa-a0cd-5553-a39d-ad2c585e0aa9)

11 Rab C. Nesbitt (#ulink_c117f3b8-50bd-5aae-9d54-b4bd6e591f09)

12 A National Treasure (#ulink_70b7fb0b-36b7-5a3e-b224-577b663b842e)

Epilogue (#ulink_a48d0236-6329-5eec-afaf-a4659b501b59)

Bibliography (#ulink_6bce8efa-361f-52d4-b632-beb5adeeeed7)

Acknowledgements (#ulink_fd0f7917-1794-5567-a65b-842f379826df)

Picture Section (#ulink_7adf2fac-8fe3-57ef-b3d6-ef8192738637)

About the Publisher (#ua545a13a-0ac7-563f-88ec-f6b7de295e97)

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Prologue (#ue0c8e00f-6140-5b79-b910-1aa102e71d7b)

‘Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides’

King Lear: Act I, Scene I

A story has to start somewhere, so let it begin with two men, strangers to each other, but with lives that will run in parallel. Matthew Donaldson McKenzie and William Blake Kerr were born in Scotland in 1888 and 1895 respectively. Both survived the slaughter of the Somme, married the same year, had children the same age, found jobs and sought to make their way in the world. Eventually their paths would cross, with far-reaching consequences.

Matthew, the elder of the two, returned from the trenches to witness his sick wife give birth, and two days later he was to see her die. He was left with three motherless children, serious trench fever and a damaged leg.

In 1921 he re-married, to a young dressmaker, and took a job at a whisky distillery in a small village in central Scotland. He moved his family into a tied house – one of the houses under the hills. Remember this place, for we shall return here many times.