In August 2026, the BBC broadcast a 60-minute documentary entitled Disclosure: Welcome to Glasgow. (BBC One – Disclosure, Welcome to Glasgow) The programme investigated claims that parts of the city centre have descended into a dangerous, “zombie apocalypse” combat zone.
Reporter Myles Bonnar spent a week filming in Glasgow city centre, focusing heavily on hotspot areas like St Enoch Square, Union Street, and the ‘Four Corners’. He discovered community tensions, the large scale presence of illegal migrants, blatantly open drug dealing, anti-social behaviour, homelessness, and recent police dispersal zones. If the documentary is in any way a fair and balanced portrayal, societal problems in Glasgow run deep with no obvious solution in the near term.
Should you prefer a gritty portrayal of Glasgow life in fiction, reach for ‘A bad, bad, place’ (2026 ) by Frances Crawford (Frances Crawford (Author) • A.M.Heath Literary Agency). The summary is as follows: It’s 1979 and twelve-year-old Janey Devine is walking her dog, Sid Vicious, when she stumbles upon the murdered body of a young woman on an abandoned railway line. The dead woman is identified as Samantha Watson, the daughter of a notorious local gangster known as Billy ‘The Ghost’ Watson. Janey claims she has traumatic amnesia and cannot remember what she saw that morning. However, both the police and vengeful gangster Billy Watson believe Janey is hiding a crucial secret. Janey’s grandmother, Nana Maggie, is required to step in to shield her granddaughter from the police scrutiny and the violent criminal underworld closing in around them.
A key theme is of community survival. Set in the tight-knit working class Glasgow neighbourhood of Possilpark, the story highlights how a violent crime reverberates within a struggling community.
The narrative explores childhood trauma, repressed memories, and how the past does not stay buried.
Despite its dark subject matter, this novel has been praised for balancing tension and grit with humour, warmth, and strong female characters.
*WINNER OF THE VAL McDERMID CRIME DEBUT AWARD*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE BLOODY SCOTLAND DEBUT PRIZE*
384 pages in Bantam
First published in hardback in 2026
ISBN-13 : 978-0857508003
Frances Crawford