Afternoon Reading - Hay-on-Wye Stories 2008 - Travels with a Hydrosextant

With his polaroid hydrosextant in hand, young Willie Paterson, apprentice quantity surveyor, takes us on a tour of his beloved Glasgow. Little does he imagine that most of the streets and buildings he knows are about to be flattened by the wrecker's ball. For this is the 1960s and over the next decade, the structure and architecture of Glasgow will change beyond all recognition. Whole swathes of tenements and back greens will disappear to make way for the new age of the tower block. And apprentice quantity surveyors are on the front line, helping to tally up the demolitions and measure the concrete on nearly 300 tower blocks all over Glasgow. Read by Bill Paterson Producer: Emma Harding.