The Scottish novelist George Blake is remembered mainly for his Depression-era novel The Shipbuilders (1935). About this novel and similar ones by Blake a reviewer for the Times of London wrote in 1946: "To the river [Clyde] Mr. Blake brings intuition and love; to the social scene knowledge and sympathy; to the individual man or woman, a somewhat commonplace insight." The last remark may seem harsh; but it is just, for Blake is not a successful portrayer of character. What is important in his work, and what has not been adequately explored by critics, is his strength as a regional author who helped shape the evolution of Scottish fiction from the period of the Kailyard romances to that of modern realism.

Born in Greenock on the Firth of Clyde, one of Scotland's principal shipbuilding centers, on 28 October 1893, Blake studied law at the University of Glasgow before enlisting for service in...