From bishops to battlefields, barrowboys to business tycoons, Nuala Naughton brings to life some of the characters and events that have shaped Glasgow’s East End since the city’s founder, St Mungo, first set eyes on the ‘dear green place’

This entertaining, lighthearted account looks at the legends behind the city’s coat of arms and the foundation of the city as an ecclesiastic centre of excellence and respected seat of learning. It also offers a colourful insight into tenement life with anecdotes and interviews by born and bred Eastenders; the Battle of George Square in 1919 when Prime Minister Churchill waged war on unionized workers, the make-do-and-mend community and the story behind ‘silk stockings’ made from used teabags and an eyebrow pencil during the Second World War; the dancin’, the saints, the sinners; the ‘City of the Dead’ and how the Barrowland ballroom came to the attention of the German high command and the war propagandist Lord Haw Haw. From medieval Glasgow to modern times, this fascinating book offers a pick ‘n’ mix of fact and fiction, myths and miracles surrounding the rich and sometimes turbulent history of Glasgow’s East End.