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Scotland 1926
25 Aug, Edinburgh Book Festival

Kirsty Gunn, Alan Riach, and James Robertson revisit the Scottish Renaissance through landmark works including Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, the early work of Neil M Gunn, & other under-sung voices including Willa Muir & Helen Cruickshank. Deep dive into a remarkable literary moment and the writers who helped reshape Scotland’s imaginative life.

edbookfest.co.uk/events/kirsty…

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #Scots #Scotslanguage

Fiction (Adults) Kirsty Gunn, Alan Riach, and James Robertson: Scotland 1926 Tue 25 Aug 2026 | 12:15 - 13:15 • Courtyard Theatre Accessibility Captioned
#literature #scots #scottish #scotslanguage #20thcentury

His corpse owre a’ the city lies
In ilka square and ilka street
His spilt bluid floods the vera skies
And nae hoose but is darkened wi’t…

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “The Dead Liebknecht”
published in SELECTED POETRY (Carcanet, 2004)

3/10

carcanet.co.uk/9781857547566/s…

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

Hugh MacDiarmid The Dead Liebknecht After the German of Rudolf Leonhardt His corpse owre a’ the city lies In ilka square and ilka street His spilt bluid floods the vera skies And nae hoose but is darkened wi’t. The factory horns begin to blaw Thro’ a’ the city, blare on blare, The lowsin’ time o’ workers a’ Like emmits skailin’ everywhere. And wi’ his white teeth shinin’ yet The corpse lies smilin’ underfit.

Selected Poetry

Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve, 1892-1978), one of the major poets of the twentieth century, is the greatest Scottish poet of any century. He dre...
SupaduDev (Carcanet Press)
#literature #poetry #poem #scots #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #macdiarmid

#literature #poetry #poem #scots #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #macdiarmid

#literature #poetry #poem #scots #biography #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #macdiarmid #margarettait

“What MacDiarmid keeps giving is a depth of understanding, an imperative to go out into the world & explore it, & the priority of the patience needed to appreciate it. That is his provenance, one hundred years since”

—Alan Riach on 100 years of “Hugh MacDiarmid”

2/10

thebottleimp.org.uk/2023/02/10…

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

One Hundred Years of Hugh MacDiarmid - The Bottle Imp

In the one hundred years since the name Hugh M‘Diarmid first appeared in print, I’ve spent the last thirty of them trying to make his work more available, in Scotland and internationally.
Pip Osmond-Williams (The Bottle Imp)
#literature #poetry #poem #scots #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #macdiarmid

“It appears that this man writes rather good revolutionary poetry… He is a rabid Scottish Nationalist, but is in close touch with the [Communist] Party”
—1931 Security Service report

Read Prof Scott Lyall’s “Hugh MacDiarmid & the British State”

4/10

thebottleimp.org.uk/2015/06/hu…

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #surveillance

Hugh MacDiarmid and the British State - The Bottle Imp

This modernist poet was born in the late-nineteenth century in a small European nation that was once an imperial power but has been somewhat dominated by its closest and larger neighbour.
pookaadmin (The Bottle Imp)
#surveillance #literature #poetry #poem #scots #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #macdiarmid

#literature #poetry #WW2 #poem #scots #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #warpoetry #macdiarmid

“Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue”
—Oxford Union Debate, 3 Dec 1964

Corey Gibson on Hugh MacDiarmid, Malcolm X, & their common cultural-political agenda
Modernism/Modernity 3/1 (2018)

6/10

modernismmodernity.org/article…

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #MalcolmX #OxfordUnion

A black and white photograph, showing (L to R) Hugh MacDiarmid; Eric Abrahams (President of the Oxford Union, 1964); Malcolm X. MacDiarmid is 66, does not smile, and looks away from the camera, off to the right; Abrahams smiles broadly, and looks at us face-on; Malcolm X also looks at us, but, like MacDiarmid, does not smile.

Extremism in Poiesis and Praxis: Hugh MacDiarmid, Malcolm X, and Barry Goldwater, Oxford 1964 | Modernism Modernity

modernismmodernity.org
#MalcolmX #literature #poetry #poem #scots #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #macdiarmid #oxfordunion

Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?
Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner
To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ …

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “Scotland Small?”
published in SELECTED POETRY (Carcanet, 2004)

7/10

carcanet.co.uk/9781857547566/s…

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #20thcentury #MacDiarmid

Scotland Small? by Hugh MacDiarmid Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small? Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ where in September another Sitting there and resting and gazing around Sees not only the heather but blaeberries With bright green leaves and leaves already turned scarlet, Hiding ripe blue berries; and amongst the sage-green leaves Of the bog-myrtle the golden flowers of the tormentil shining; And on the small bare places, where the little Blackface sheep Found grazing, milkworts blue as summer skies; And down in neglected peat-hags, not worked Within living memory, sphagnum moss in pastel shades Of yellow, green, and pink; sundew and butterwort Waiting with wide-open sticky leaves for their tiny winged prey; And nodding harebells vying in their colour With the blue butterflies that poise themselves delicately upon them, And stunted rowans with harsh dry leaves of glorious colour. ‘Nothing but heather!’ – How marvellously descriptive! And incomplete!

Selected Poetry

Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve, 1892-1978), one of the major poets of the twentieth century, is the greatest Scottish poet of any century. He dre...
SupaduDev (Carcanet Press)
#literature #poetry #poem #scottish #modernism #20thcentury #macdiarmid

#OTD #literature #poetry #poem #scots #scottish #modernism #scotslanguage #20thcentury #macdiarmid

A Kick Up the Arts: Val McDermid & Jo Sharp

Host Nicola Meighan speaks to Val McDermid & Jo Sharp about their new book, This Door of the Seas. The novella is the seventh book in Polygon’s acclaimed Darkland Tales series, in which some of Scotland’s best-loved writers re-imagine stories from Scottish history, myth & legend through a contemporary lens.

akickupthearts.org/blog-3-1/va…

#Scottish #literature #historicalfiction #novella #podcast #ValMcDermid

Val McDermid and Jo Sharp: This Door of the Seas… — A Kick Up The Arts

I’m hearing from two brilliant women, and minds, who’ve joined forces to explore a wild - and under-documented, and misunderstood - chapter in Scottish history…  In their superb new novella, This Door of the Seas , best-selling writer Val McDermid…
Nicola Meighan (A Kick Up The Arts)
#podcast #literature #historicalfiction #scottish #novella #ValMcDermid

#comic #comics #graphicNovel #literature #YA #comicbooks #scottish #kidlit @bookstodon group

#travel #Scotland #Edinburgh #scottish #duchessofwestend

“[I]f you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat.”

—Nancy Hawkins, the majestic narrator of Muriel Spark’s A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON, on why a writer should own a cat

Today, 8 August, is International Cat Day (don’t tell them) 🐈‍⬛

1/3

#Scottish #literature #writing #writingadvice #MurielSpark #cats #InternationalCatDay

So I passed him some very good advice, that if you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work, I explained, the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk-lamp. The light from a lamp, I explained, gives a cat great satisfaction. The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquillity of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.
#cats #literature #writing #writingadvice #scottish #InternationalCatDay #murielspark

The Cheviot, the Stag & the Black, Black Oil

Currently on the BBC iPlayer: the 1974 TV adaptation of John McGrath’s iconic 7:84 play about the exploitation of the Scottish people through history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the North Sea oil boom

bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019…

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #drama #theatre

Play for Today - Series 4: The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil

The 1974 TV adaptation of John McGrath's iconic 7:84 play about the exploitation of the Scottish people through history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the oil boom.
BBC iPlayer
#drama #literature #theatre #scottish #20thcentury

#humour #literature #poetry #poem #marriage #scottish

#literature #shortstories #scottish #gaelic #gàidhlig #shortfiction #20thcentury

#literature #poetry #poem #scottish #gaelic #gàidhlig #20thcentury

“Born in the Isle of Lewis, Thomson stamped his vision on Gaelic Scotland in the second half of the twentieth century & has been singled out for doing more for Gaelic than any other individual in the history of the language”

—Dr Petra Poncarová on how Derick Thomson shaped Gaelic Scotland

2/7

saha.scot/how-derick-thomson-s…

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #20thcentury

How Derick Thomson Shaped Gaelic Scotland - by Dr Petra Johana Poncarová | SAHA: The Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance

A joint initiative of Scottish Higher Education institutions, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities.
SAHA (SAHA: The Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance)
#literature #poetry #poem #scottish #gaelic #gàidhlig #20thcentury

Cuil-lodair, is Briseadh na h-Eaglaise,
is briseadh nan tacannan –
lamhachas-làidir dà thrian de ar comas;
’se seòltachd tha dhìth oirinn…

—Ruaraidh MacThòmais, “Cruaidh?” (“Steel?”)
from Creachadh na Clarsaich / Plundering the Harp

3/7

scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/p…

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #20thcentury #Culloden

Cruaidh? le Ruaraidh MacThòmais Cuil-lodair, is Briseadh na h-Eaglaise, is briseadh nan tacannan – lamhachas-làidir dà thrian de ar comas; ‘se seòltachd tha dhìth oirinn. Nuair a theirgeas a’ chruaidh air faobhar na speala caith bhuat a’ chlach-liomhaidh; chan eil agad ach iarann bog mur eil de chruas nad innleachd na ni sgathadh. Is caith bhuat briathran mìne oir chan fhada bhios briathran agad; tha Tuatha Dè Danann fon talamh, tha Tìr nan Og anns an Fhraing, ‘s nuair a ruigeas tu Tìr a’ Gheallaidh, mura bi thu air t’ aire, coinnichidh Sasannach riut is plion air, a dh’ innse dhut gun tug Dia, bràthair athar, còir dha anns an fhearann.
Steel? Translator: Derick Thomson Culloden, the Disruption, and the breaking up of the tack-farms – two-thirds of our power is violence; it is cunning we need. When the tempered steel near the edge of the scythe-blade is worn throw away the whetstone; you have nothing left but soft iron unless your intellect has a steel edge that will cut clean. And throw away soft words, for soon you will have no words left; the Tuatha Dè Danann are underground, the Land of the Ever-young is in France, and when you reach the Promised Land, unless you are on your toes, a bland Englishman will meet you, and say to you that God, his uncle, has given him a title to the land.

Cruaidh?

Cuil-lodair, is Briseadh na h-Eaglaise, / is briseadh nan tacannan – / lamhachas-làidir dà thrian de ar comas; / ‘se seòltachd tha dhìth oirinn. / Nuair a...
Scottish Poetry Library
#literature #poetry #poem #scottish #gaelic #gàidhlig #20thcentury #culloden

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