Several others had been commissioned by local authorities or tourist boards with a view to promoting their areas. Large companies – especially builders and whisky distillers – commissioned histories of their success from him, as did the locally renowned "Western Baths". All of these commissions are testimony to his engaging style, as well as an investigative prowess derived from his journalism. He produced other substantial works closer to his personal interests, such as "Heart of Glasgow". However, one of his biggest successes was "Square Mile of Murder". In this he described and analysed several notorious 19th-century murders, and miscarriages of justice, in the middle-class districts in the west of the city. Among these were the cases of Madeleine Smith, (played, like the rest of the cast, with a perfect English accent by Ann Todd in David Lean's 1949 film "Madeleine") and Oscar Slater. He tried his hand as a novelist in "House on the Hill", with limited success (although it was later dramatised by Scottish Television). However, his sparkling journalism never went out of fashion – despite the fact that he had always warned that he never let a concern for facts get in his way if there was a good story to be told. His "'Ask Jack" column in the "Glasgow Evening Citizen" gave lively answers (most of them true) to readers' questions on all aspects of the City. He was often on television, with STV and BBC Scotland, and formed a winning partnership with Sir James Fergusson in the long-running radio series Round Britain Quiz. "Pavement in the Sun" is an attempt at autobiography. He regularly acted as restaurant critic for that paper, where, as usual, his partisanship for the city over-ruled any more nuanced judgements. The view from one restaurant table looked down along the Great Western Road. "Like the "Champs Elysées" – only better!", was Mr Glasgow's considered verdict. He spent a great deal of time in the ""Ubiquitous Chip"" restaurant and there is a caricature of him – buck teeth and all – by Emilio Coia still hanging over his habitual table. The restaurant was close to Jack's last home – a flat in a classic Glasgow tenement. His substantial Edwardian flat in "Beaumont Gate", was in Dowanhill, where he had always aspired to stay. This, like his birth and childhood homes was of striking red sandstone – a Glaswegian architectural/visual code for ""extremely well-off"".