THE late, great Cliff Hanley was a man of many talents.

As the affectionate obituary in The Herald began on August 10, 1999: “Put pen and pencil, or, in more recent times, a keyboard, in front of Cliff Hanley, ask him to produce 500 words on any subject or topic under the sun, and you could guarantee that he would produce the goods, informed as well as witty, often inside fewer than 60 minutes.

“Versatility was the key attribute of this writer and former broadcaster, a small and sprightly figure familiar on the after-dinner circuit in the West of Scotland and in the professional clubs and watering-holes frequented by the city’s writers, artists, actors, and journalists.”

At one early point Cliff was asked by the celebrated Scottish singer, Robert Wilson, to write the words to accompany an old Highland pipe tune; thus was born Scotland the Brave, our unofficial national anthem before the advent of Flower of Scotland. He wrote a number of successful books, beginning with Dancing In The Street, a semi-autobiographical work inspired by his childhood in the East End of Glasgow. In later life he was writer-in-residence at a university in Toronto.

In the photograph above Cliff is launching, with the help of a Paisley woman, a Mrs Gilbert, a Strathclyde Regional Council video training pack designed to reduce pensioners’ road deaths.