Scotsman Obituaries: Angus Wolfe Murray, film journalist and co-founder of Canongate Books

Angus Wolfe Murray was a giant in Scottish arts circles

Novelist, film critic and amateur cricketer Angus Wolfe Murray, who has died aged 85, was a well-kent face to many in Scotland. A tall, elegant man, typically dressed in colourfully patched denim jeans and sometimes cowboy boots, he was a romantic figure.

As a young man, Angus was hailed as one of the most promising writers of his generation when his first novel, The End of Something Nice, a poignant tale about two lonely children, was published in 1967. A large advance and high expectations lead to a long personal struggle with the follow-up. After two years of writing, he tore the manuscript into tiny pieces and started again. Eventually, Resurrection Shuffle was published in 1978. A more experimental novel influenced by the ideas of that era, it was a flop and he never published another novel.

Angus valued originality in art. He continued to write throughout his life, mostly as a film critic, often championing small, offbeat movies and expressing trenchant opinions. “The only crime was being boring”, a colleague recalled recently on son Rupert’s website, wolfemurray.com. Former cinema manager Kathryn Allan wrote: “I remember him always arriving late for screenings, rushing in at the last second in his trademark patched denims, but I knew if Angus was not there then I couldn’t start the film. We would chat after screenings and I enjoyed hearing his frank, and often unique, take on films.”

For several years, Angus was The Scotsman’s film critic, thriving under the editorship of Magnus Linklater. But when the paper was acquired by the Barclay brothers in the mid-1990s, his face didn’t fit. Quick to see the potential of the internet, he co-founded a movie review site called Inside Out. Later, he wrote for Eye For Film, which hosts thousands of his reviews. Angus fell in love with film as a boy, bunking off from a “beastly boarding school in Berkshire” – Eton – to go to the cinemas of Slough and Windsor.

His childhood was marred by the loss of his mother, Lady Grizel Mary Boyle, daughter of the Earl of Glasgow, in a wartime disaster. Onboard the SS Laconia when it was attacked, she was first rescued by a German U boat flying a red cross flag, but pushed off in a lifeboat when the U boat was attacked by a US bomber and had to dive. Most passengers, including the pregnant Grizel, perished. Angus was five. Subsequently, he was brought up in the extended family, initially by his grandmother Hyacinthe Mary Bell, the Countess of Glasgow, at Kelburn Castle, until his father, Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Alexander Wolfe Murray, remarried, to Polish aristocrat Zofia Jaxa-Chamiec.

Son Kim recalls that although Angus retained the friendship and affection of the companions of his youth, he rejected the “hunting, shooting, fishing” mentality of his privileged background. “He hated the class system, he hated snobbery.”

In 1961, Angus married Stephanie Todd and four sons, Kim, Rupert, Gavin and Magnus, arrived over the rest of that decade. The family moved around a great deal, surviving on very little money as Angus pursued his literary career. Eventually they moved to Glenternie House in Peebles, owned by his father.

In 1973, with American writer Bob Shure, and Stephanie, Angus founded the publishing house Canongate. He played an instrumental role in publishing Alasdair Gray’s masterpiece Lanark. But he didn’t stay long at Canongate, leaving it to be run by Stephanie. The marriage had started to unravel and they separated in 1978.

Angus bought a van and founded a fine art removal business, Moving Pictures, which he ran for almost a decade. He packed paintings with obsessive care and spent long hours on the road. But his temperament was less suited to the administrative side of the firm.

In the Nineties, Angus moved to a remote off-grid cottage called Hopehead, miles from a gravel road, on the Stobo Castle estate, where he lived a Spartan existence, mostly without electricity. In later life, he had a fifth son, Calum. Angus remained close to Stephanie and spent increasing periods of time with her until, in 2010, they moved back in together at Glenlude House in the Borders.

The Wolfe Murrays’ hospitality is recalled fondly by many – their kitchen table was the scene of lively discussions, and there were competitive games of rounders, charades and cards. Although gregarious in company, Angus wasn’t always sociable and lavished much of his time and affection on animals. He had a series of dogs, some of them rescues, but disdained leads or training. He made pets of geese, ducks and hens. One hen, Pinkie, whom he had reared from the egg, would breakfast with him on porridge and cream, and a black duck called Treacle McTruffle would accompany Angus when he went to mow the grass at Melrose cricket ground,following him up and down the rows.

Cricket was a big part of life. Peebles teammate Angus Bell recalled: “We spent every Saturday and Sunday in summer together, suffering a series of excruciating defeats. Angus would score 75 and the rest of the team combined, 5. He would race through the Scottish Borders, sometimes with horse trailers in tow, a dog on his lap, picking up farmers in need of double knee replacements and a clutch of keen 13-year-olds, the club kit bag, plus tea-for-two. His vegetarian sandwiches were always the most popular.”

After Stephanie’s death in 2017, Angus was seriously injured in a car accident. Life became more difficult after that. He eventually moved to a cottage near Kelburn, where he had spent part of his childhood.

A funeral and memorial will be held at Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, at 11am on 9 February, followed by interment in Traquair Cemetery at 1pm.

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Scotsman Obituaries: Angus Wolfe Murray, film journalist and co-founder of Canongate Books

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