111 Places is a series of ‘ultimate insider’s guides’ with more than 250 titles worldwide. Tom Shields, whose career as a journalist with the Glasgow Herald and Sunday Herald spanned five decades, was commissioned to do the Glasgow book.

He says: ‘I have always wanted to write a tome about my home city so this was an offer I could not refuse. The remit was to remember that 111 Places is more than a guide book. And I was free to write in my peculiar style developed over 25 years in charge of the Herald Diary column.

‘The result is a personal look at Glasgow in the 21st century, often through a rear-view mirror. The publishers describe it as a wealth of local knowledge and engaging anecdotes which will guide the reader round a huge variety of intriguing sights, unique venues and surprising corners of this great city. Who am I to argue with that?

‘It is certainly a handsome-looking book, richly illustrated by photographer Gillian Tait. Gillian is author of 111 Places in Edinburgh and edited a number of books about other cities. She is a meticulous editor who tamed the excesses of this wayward Glaswegian writer.’

Among the 111 places: A selection of fascinating trees, appropriate for a city with a tree in its coat of arms.

Probably too many statues, particularly of Victorian politicians.

Churches that are still churches and churches that are now music venues, restaurants, and even an indoor mountaineering centre.

Shipyards, but gie few these days.

Iconic pubs, patisserie, square sausage.

Stunning visual art in galleries and on gable walls.

Buildings that make Glasgow still the finest Victorian city in Britain despite the best efforts of destructive planners. Buildings that only exist because of the efforts of community activists. The people made Glasgow and Glasgow makes the people.

This was once known as the Second City of the British Empire -- the powerhouse of the industrial revolution, a great port and merchant city whose architectural and cultural magnificence hid a darker side of urban poverty and squalor. Today the heavy industry is long gone, and 21st-century Glasgow is comfortable in its role as a smaller, cleaner, greener city, a vibrant and stylish centre for the arts and learning, now even friendlier and more culturally diverse.