Book review: The Glasgow Effect, by Ellie Harrison

Were one minded to be generous then this work – subtitled “a tale of class, capitalism and carbon footprint” – might be described as a bit of a bric-a-brac of a book. Another way to consider it is as a shambolic diary. Most readers, I would think, would be primarily interested in Ellie Harrison’s take on her notorious “Glasgow Effect” artwork, where she pledged to “not travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except my bike, for a whole calendar year”. What would the author (stroke artist, stroke activist) say about the work, its consequence and the furore around it? To get to that point, the reader has to go through various chapters of polemic about neoliberalism (defined basically as anything she disagrees with); memoir; rather meandering sections about public transport reform and quite a lot more. A book that ought to have been half its length and far more precise is instead rambling and inchoate.