Beloved, reviled – and not only by Glaswegians – Glasgow isn't just the Industrial Revolution nor the Victorian slums. Founded in the sixth century, its forebears pushed back the Romans.

The roof of its cathedral, founded in the twelfth century, survived the Reformation. Its fifteenth-century university welcomed Adam Smith and the Enlightenment. It prospered from sugar, tobacco, cotton and slavery in the eighteenth century, and saw the rise of the Red Clydesiders in the twentieth.

Glasgow's not just a city, it's an urban civilization in itself, unique and fruitful. Its denizens have seen the city rise and fall, they have survived bombs and demolitions, and somehow kept their humour intact.

Now these people and this city play a pivotal role in Scotland's future, and in the future of the UK. It's time for a book that tells the story in all its complexity.