Artists Alasdair Gray talks republicanism, books and depression

Artist and author Alasdair Gray has been speaking to the BBC's Newsnight Scotland about his latest books - a memoir and a political pamphlet on Scottish independence.

In a wide-ranging interview, the Glasgow based 79-year-old articulated his views on republicanism, left-wing politics and his failed attempts to kill himself.

He said: "I have had very depressive time in my life. A period in the mid-1960s and early 1970s in which I felt so miserable I thought of killing myself. I didn't, my attempts were so half hearted that like most such attempts it got nowhere - and I am quite glad."

Gray told presenter Gordon Brewer: "I am largely republican in my outlook."