One of the founders of both the Labour Party and SNP - and his Cardross connections - are the subject of a new book seeking to restore his name to public consciousness.

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham was a leading figure in politics in the UK but had international adventures as well, writes author Dr Lachlan Munro.

He said Cunninghame Graham was hailed during his life as "the greatest Scotsman of his generation", but his "extraordinary life" deserves new promenance.

Born in 1852, he inherited the estates of Gartmore and Ardoch, near Cardross. But he sold off Ardoch in 1887 when his father died. And when he couldn't manage his father's debt, he became the Liberal MP for North West Lanarkshire instead.

But he witnessed the poverty of the mining communities and rebelled against his party, and even got arrested and jailed for a month after being badly beaten by polish.

He then met Keir Hardie and formed the first Labour Party together.

Some of the adventures Dr Munro recounts in the book include Cunninghame Graham disguising himself as a Turkish doctor to enter a forbidden city in Morocco.

He was a friend of George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, William Morris, T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia), and even promoted the author Joseph Conrad.

He also had four attempted business ventures abroad, the first being as a cattle rancher in Argentina at the age of 17, and the last in Texas, where he met Buffalo Bill.

Cunninghame Graham signed up to serve in World War One at the age of 62.

Dr Munro said he was a determined anti-racist, and anti imperialist, and in the 1920s was a key member behind the National Party of Scotland, and later the SNP, becoming their first president in 1934.

The author said: "Cunninghame Graham was also a highly respected author in his own right, and published 34 books in his lifetime, most of which recorded his adventures in South America, and Morocco, and latterly, Scotland. These comprise a wonderful collection of evocative sketches, which conjured up lost landscapes and local traditions, which are quite unique in Scottish literature."

Although he had sold Ardoch in 1887, he bought it back in 1903 and lived there until his death in Buenos Aires at the age of 83. He was later buried at the Priory on Inchmahome in the Lake of Menteith.

"R. B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose, and Political Aesthetic" by Lachlan Munro, is published by Edinburgh University Press.