THESE columns have often been graced by the words of my good friend Dr John Purser. He is Scotland’s foremost musicologist, a poet, composer, playwright, researcher at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic College in Skye, where he lives with his wife Bar, working a croft and planning the third edition of his magisterial opus, the great book Scotland’s Music.
HERE’S the question: When the majority of the population of a country are of a certain opinion, and their preference forms the rule of law, should you ever go against it? And if it is not your own country, what right do you have to offer an opinion anyway?
MAYBE the most famous poem based on a painting is WH Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts from December 1938. Do you remember it?
INDIGENOUS Soul: Gaza And Me, by Nada Shawa, is an extraordinary book ...
GERDA Stevenson, Sally Magnusson, Gerry Cambridge and I will be reading from our own work in the first half of the Biggar Little Festival programme, offering a variety of voices and a range of literary forms...
LAST week, I was in conversation with Dr Jamie Reid Baxter about the poetry of Esther Inglis. His new book in which her poems with their marvellous illuminations or illustrations are beautifully reproduced has just been published ...
ANYONE with an interest in the sheer richness of Scottish culture should think of booking a ticket for St Cecilia’s Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday, October 20, for a fascinating free concert celebrating the Edinburgh artist and poet Esther Inglis.
OUT there is where most of us can walk to, see through our windows, get to by bus or train, every day of our lives in Scotland ...
NOW’S the Day, Now’s the Hour: Poems for John Maclean, edited by Henry Bell and Joey Simons, was published by Tapsalteerie Press in November 2023, and launched at The Griffin in Glasgow, at a memorable reading with a lot of the poets and writers who contributed involved. Check out the press website – www.tapsalteerie.co.uk/
LAST week, I was talking about Glencoe, quoting extensively from an essay by Professor Emerita Nancy K Gish of the University of Southern Maine, on TS Eliot’s poem Rannoch, by Glencoe. Since that essay was first composed, Nancy added an Addendum. I quote it here:
