Wee Macgreegor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wee Macgreegor (properly called Macgregor Robinson and sometimes spelt "Wee Macgregor") is a character created in newspaper short stories and books written by the Scottish journalist and author, John Joy Bell, first appearing in the Glasgow Evening Times in 1901. Initially, he was a cheeky young boy with an insatiable fondness for sweets, the son of respectable working class parents, Lizzie and John Robinson, who lived in Glasgow. Reported speech in the stories is written in the Glasgow dialect. Later books covered Wee Macgreegor's adolescence and enlistment during the First World War.[1]
Bell had been writing some short stories and poems for The Glasgow Herald, when he was invited to contribute to the Glasgow Evening Times by its editor, A. Dewar Willock. The inspiration for the character came from an encounter which Bell had had a decade earlier on a Clyde steamer, when he overheard a mother tell her son:
Macgreegor, tak yer paw's haun', or ye'll get nae carvies tae yer tea! ("Macgregor take your pa's hand, or you'll get no caraway cakes for your tea!")
The first short story about the Robinson family and their young son, "Wee Macgreegor", appeared in the Evening Times in 1901.[2]
