During the 1970s, one day I strayed from the post-war sprawl of Linthaugh Road in Pollok to an enclave known as Corkerhill, passing the railway workers’ cottages and trespassing on impossibly rural farmland. By pure chance I had arrived at a strange and magical place. Pollok Estate wasn’t so much a park as an exotic parallel universe. Here was an old and venerable mansion, Pollok House, with its artefacts and formal gardens and ancient gnarled beech, the White Cart...

Cradle of the Stewarts says the sign on the A8. I'm surrounded by patches of fenced-off land primed for retail development, no doubt designed to avoid Glasgow’s crippling business rates, reputed to be the world’s seventh most expensive. At Renfrewshire’s border, a spit from the M8 motorway and Glasgow International Airport, things are looking up. According to its website, Braehead Shopping Centre is the Scottish Retail Excellence Awards Shopping Destination of the Year 2007-8.