Eggplant.place

286d

“From Scotland to the World”: The Poetry of Hope Mirrlees, Helen Adam, Muriel Spark, & Veronica Forrest-Thomson
—Dorothy McMillan, HUMANITIES 8/4, 2019

Dorothy McMillan discusses four 20th-century women writers “poised… between Scotland and Modernism”

@litstudies

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/8/4/184

#Scottish #literature #poetry #20thcentury #womenwriters #modernism

Abstract

The four poets that provide the material for this chapter did not know each other and they probably did not know each other’s work. However, they had important formative experiences in common: They were all educated in Scotland and they all left Scotland after that early education. Yet, they all retained special, although different, ties to that country, to its history, and its writing. They were all “modern” in their poetry, sometimes bizarrely so: Of each of them it could be said, “There was no one like her.” This strangeness they also share, as they share a willingness, even desire, to shock, a muddling of contemporary and archaic, of real and legendary. Veronica Forrest-Thomson’s “Hold on to your seat-belt Persephone” is an indicative phrase. I aim to show that these serially inimitable modern writers have complicated and intertwined Scottish and international connections.

Keywords: Scotland; ballads; kaleidoscope; Charles Bernstein; Edwin Morgan

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269d

The Many Primes of Muriel Spark
First broadcast in 2018. Available on BBC iPlayer until 27 December.

Kirsty Wark celebrates the life and work of Dame Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic cultural figures.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qlx14

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #MurielSpark

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282d

“Helen Adam marched through her life to the beat of her own drum”
—Kristin Prevallet

Helen Adam (1909–1993) – fey child prodigy (published by Faber & Faber at 14) & daughter of the manse; bardic matriarch of the San Francisco Beats; Worm Queen – was born #OTD, 2 Dec.

A 🎂🧵

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https://caesuramag.org/posts/kristin-prevallet-poems-by-helen-adam

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #poetry

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264d

“He looks much older than he is, for it is not quite twenty years ago that Johnnie founded the Society for the Abolition of Christmas”

—Muriel Spark, “The Leaf-Sweeper”
in THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES, published by @canongatebooks

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https://canongate.co.uk/books/1371-the-complete-short-stories/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #Christmas #shortstory #shortstory #womenwriters #20thcentury

THE LEAF-SWEEPER

Behind the town hall there is a wooded parkland which, towards the end of November, begins to draw a thin blue cloud right into itself; and as a rule the park floats in this haze until mid-February. I pass every day, and see Johnnie Geddes in the heart of this mist, sweeping up the leaves. Now and again he stops, and jerking his long head erect, looks indignantly at the pile of leaves, as if it ought not to be there; then he sweeps on. This business of leaf-sweeping he learnt during the years he spent in the asylum; it was the job they always gave him to do; and when he was discharged the town council gave him the leaves to sweep. But the indignant movement of the head comes naturally to him, for this has been one of his habits since he was the most promising and buoyant and vociferous graduate of his year. He looks much older than he is, for it is not quite twenty years ago that Johnnie founded the Society for the Abolition of Christmas.

Johnnie was living with his aunt then. I was at school, and in the Christmas holidays Miss Geddes gave me her nephew's pamphlet, How to Grow Rich at Christmas. It sounded very likely, but it turned out that you grow rich at Christmas by doing away […]

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1y

Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889–1982)—author, poet, film-maker, botanist, #arctic explorer—was born #OTD, 30 May. A 🎂 🧵

WalkHighlands shares an extract from PEAK BEYOND PEAK, describing how she tackled the Corrieyairack Pass between the #Cairngorms & Loch Ness

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https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/peak-beyond-peak-the-unpublished-scottish-journeys-of-isobel-wylie-hutchison/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #hillwalking #mountaineering

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242d

Orcadian author Ann Scott-Moncrieff (1914–1943) was born #OTD, 11 January. Lesley Findlay, her daughter, talks about Ann’s life in Orkney, her writing, & her children’s stories – recently republished by Scotland Street Press

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https://www.scotlandstreetpress.com/journal/who-was-ann-scott-moncrieff

#Scottish #literature #20thCentury #Orkney #WomenWriters #ChildrensLiterature #kidlit

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233d

I saw the dead upon St Laurence Wake
Sailing in beautiful Brimvald. They were young,
Younger than death and life, with a sweet tongue
I have heard in my blood before…

—“The Vikings”, by Olive Fraser (1909–1977) – born #OTD, 20 Jan, & a poet whose work was sadly neglected in her lifetime. A 🎂 🧵

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#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #womenwriters #OliveFraser #Vikings

Olive Fraser
1909-77

THE VIKINGS

King Haro's navy met on St Laurence Wake in 1263 at Ronaldsvo under the leadership of his great ship Brimvald

I saw the dead upon St Laurence Wake
Sailing in beautiful Brimvald. They were young,
Younger than death and life, with a sweet tongue
I have heard in my blood before,
Dreaming it was the wild gannets that make
Their comment upon Sulna-stapa shore.
I creid upon the dead, 'Why is your face
So beautiful in the regretless place?

'Surely among the dead there is no will
For dragon-necks of gold and for straight sails,
And Brimvald with the silver bitterns' tails
Is quiet under dark skerries now.'
'O we are loved among the living still,
We are forgiven among the dead. We plough
In the old narrows of the spirit. We
Have woven our wealth into your mystery.'

And I remembered words that I had heard
And never heard. And vessels that I knew
And thought were visions. The mute swans that flew
Over grey islands were like these
And yet were nothing. Once at Herlesferd
I saw a ship whose path on the green seas
Made joy to brindled sea-birds, and my breath
Was dangerous and scant, bitter like death.

'O if you died upon St Laurence Wake
Why are you beautiful and young,' I cried
'Like dreams of you I saw on a great tide
Lovelier and more young than I?
Even when I heard the wild white eagles take
Over the earth with their cruel minstrelsy
You were more light than I have ever been.'
They said, 'We are your Soul that you have seen.'

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144d

Marion Cleland Lochhead (1902–1985) was born #OTD, 19 April, in Wishaw. A founding member of Scottish PEN, Lochhead was a versatile figure of the 20th-century Scottish literary scene.

👇“Painted Things”, by Marion Lochhead – published in Painted Things & Other Poems (Gowans & Grey, 1929)

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #womenwriters #20thcentury

Painted Things
Marion Lochhead

I love painted things –
Bright wooden toys and boxes, coloured beads,
Shawls like a peacock's plumage, scarves like wings
Of birds that flaunt and flutter: all that breeds
Delight and thoughts fantastic. I love glass,
Deep-tinted, amethystine, fire-red, gold,
That throws dim, changing luminance as I pass,
And shifts, deploys like tapestries unrolled –
I love all these
Gay fantasies; but more I love the grey
Austere walls of cathedrals, the bare trees
That stand unmoved, with light and wing away.

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227d

Ali Smith: The book that changed me as a teenager

“Liz Lochhead’s Memo for Spring… I found a book so slim it had no spine, just hinges, and was by a woman who was young, Scottish and a poet (at this point in time a rare combination). The poems in it were so good, gripping and clear, written in a kind of Scottish English I knew was close to my own, but I’d never read in any book”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/23/ali-smith-henry-james-had-me-running-down-the-garden-path-shouting-out-loud

#Scottish #literature #poetry #20thcentury #womenwriters #LizLochhead #AliSmith

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221d

2026 is Agnes Owens’ centenary year, & Polygon will publish 7 new editions of her novels & short stories in collaboration with the Agnes Owens Archive – also launching this year. These new editions will be introduced by some of Scotland’s finest contemporary writers.

https://birlinn.co.uk/2026/01/08/polygon-to-publish-new-editions-of-the-works-of-agnes-owens-to-mark-centenary/

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #20thcentury #workingclass #workingclasswriters #AgnesOwens

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226d

“It is a bold move to be so morally unflinching, especially in the face of a perceived aesthetic orthodoxy that so often privileges distance and irony, but in Glyph we see a major British writer answering the call of the day when so many others have equivocated or turned away.”

—GLYPH by Ali Smith: bearing witness to the war in Gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/27/glyph-by-ali-smith-review-bearing-witness-to-the-war-in-gaza

#Scottish #literature #Gaza #AliSmith #womenwriters

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221d

THAT PROMETHEAN SPARK
The Bottle Imp – Muriel Spark special issue

Muriel Spark was born #OTD, 1 Feb, 1918

“With a writing career that included biography, criticism, drama and short fiction as well as novels, Muriel Spark was never one to do things by halves…”

A 🎂 🧵

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https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2017/11/that-promethian-spark/

#Scottish #literature #MurielSpark #20thCentury #WomenWriters

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220d

Today, 2 February, is Candlemas. As well as being a Christian holy day, it is one of the four Scottish Quarter Days, when rents were due.

The Scots poem “At Candlemas” by Marion Angus (1865–1946) is a typically unsentimental look at how swiftly youth turns to old age:

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Candlemas #Scots #Scotslanguage #womenwriters #20thcentury #aging

At Candlemas
Marion Angus

Lang syne at Candlemas
At first cam o’ the mune,
I, a bit lassie,
Hame-gaun fae the toon,
Fell in wi’ a stranger
Frail as ony reed,
Wi’ a green mantle
Hapt aboot her heid.

Haste, I wad haste me,
The whinny road along,
Whinny, crookit road
Faur the grey ghaists gang.
Wi her een fu’ o’ spells,
Her broo runkled sair,
She micht weel be the witch
O’ the Braid Hill o’ Fare.

Here cams Candlemas,
A wan deein’ mune,
Eh! bit I’m weary.
Cauldrife wis the toon!

Yon’s a blythe bairnie
Soople as a reed,
Rinnin’ wi’ a hankey
Tied aboot her heid,
Hastin’, hastin’,
Limber-licht fit,
Doon the crookit road
Faur the grey moths flit.

Quo’ she, ‘Ye’r sma’-bookit,
Yer broo’s runkled sair,
Er’ ye the auld witch
O’ the Braid Hill o’ Fare?’

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224d

Take Four Books: Ali Smith
Available on BBC Sounds.

Ali Smith speaks to Take Four Books about her latest novel, GLYPH. Together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works.

@bookstodon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002qgmj

#Scottish #literature #AliSmith #womenwriters

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143d

Agnes Owens in the archives
23 April, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Free

2026 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Agnes Owens, described by Alasdair Gray in 2003 as “the most unfairly neglected of all living Scottish authors.”

Explore the collections left behind by Owens, & learn how her archives are being used to reappraise her legacy & secure her status as a major Scottish literary figure.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/agnes-owens-in-the-archives-tickets-1983616132249

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #AgnesOwens #archives

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216d

Book launch: THE DELUSIONS by Jenni Fagan
16 March, Edinburgh. Tickets from £8

Jenni Fagan launches her new novel THE DELUSIONS, a haunting dystopian vision that revolves around afterlife employee Edi’s attempts to be reunited with her deceased son.

“Brilliant, original, daring, a 1984 for the afterlife and a fabulous satire.”'
—Irvine Welsh

https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/edinburgh/jenni-fagan-2026/

#Scottish #literature #JenniFagan #womenwriters #booklaunch #Edinburgh #afterlife

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214d

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift…

—Carol Ann Duffy, “Prayer”
from MEAN TIME (Picador, 2017; Anvil, 1993)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/carol-ann-duffy/mean-time/9781509852949

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #CarolAnnDuffy #womenwriters #prayer

Prayer
Carol Ann Duffy

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

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214d

Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded #OnThisDay, 8 February, 1587, on the orders of Elizabeth I of England – her first cousin once removed.

Consider the way she had to go,
Think of the hungry snare,
The net she herself had woven,
Aware or unaware…

—Marion Angus, “Alas! Poor Queen”
Published in TURN OF THE DAY (1931) – online via the National Library of Scotland

https://digital.nls.uk/works-by-selected-scottish-authors/archive/129159433?mode=fullsize

#Scottish #literature #history #poem #poetry #MaryQueenofScots #womenwriters #20thcentury

Alas! Poor Queen
Marion Angus

She was skilled in music and the dance
And the old arts of love
At the court of the poisoned rose
And the perfumed glove,
And gave her beautiful hand
To the pale Dauphin
A triple crown to win—
And she loved little dogs
And parrots
And red-legged partridges
And the golden fishes of the Due de Guise
And a pigeon with a blue ruff
She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf.

Master John Knox was no friend to her ;
She spoke him soft and kind,
Her honeyed words were Satan’s lure
The unwary soul to bind.
“Good sir, doth a lissome shape
And a comely face
Offend your God His Grace
Whose Wisdom maketh these
Golden fishes of the Due de Guise?”

She rode through Liddesdale with a song ;
“Ye streams sae wondrous strang,
Oh, mak’ me a wrack as I come back
But spare me as I gang.”
While a hill-bird cried and cried
Like a spirit lost
By the grey storm-wind tost.

Consider the way she had to go,
Think of the hungry snare,
The net she herself had woven,
Aware or unaware,

ALT

Of the dancing feet grown still,
The blinded eyes.—
Queens should be cold and wise,
And she loved little things,
Parrots
And red-legged partridges
And the golden fishes of the Due de Guise
And the pigeon with the blue ruff
She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf.

ALT

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142d

Wigtown Spring Book Weekend
2–4 May

Covenanters & women crime writers will be two of the themes woven into this year’s Wigtown Spring Book Weekend. With dozens of events from author talks to guided walks, writing, photography & music workshops, the programme is now available online:

https://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/blog/wigtown-spring-book-weekend-2026

#Scottish #literature #books #bookfestivals #historicalfiction #crimefiction #womenwriters #Wigtown

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211d

Nan Shepherd (1893–1981) was born #OTD, 11 Feb. Recently her nature writing & her memoir THE LIVING MOUNTAIN have gained attention—but she was also an important modernist novelist. Charlotte Peacock weighs her contribution to Scotland’s literary renaissance

A 🎂 🧵

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https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2020/12/quiet-pioneer-the-novels-of-nan-shepherd-1893-1981/

#Scottish #literature #NanShepherd #modernist #modernism #20thCentury #NatureWriting #memoir #WomenWriters

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210d

A country of their own: writing Scotland as a woman
Ifeta Čirić-Fazlija & Lejla Mulalić

This monograph examines the works of five Scottish women authors: Kathleen Jamie, Liz Lochhead, Sharman Macdonald, Rona Munro, & Agnes Owens

Available free online via Open Access

@litstudies

https://ebooks.ff.unsa.ba/index.php/ebooks_ffunsa/catalog/book/125

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #gender #region #class #workingclass #identity #OpenAccess

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193d

Exploring the Jackie Kay Archive
28 May, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Free, booking required.

Explore the personal archive of Jackie Kay, Scotland's former Makar and beloved writer. Curator Dan Sheehy will share his favourite discoveries from cataloguing her lifetime of work.

https://www.nls.uk/whats-on/jackie-kay-archive/

#Scottish #literature #poetry #JackieKay #womenwriters #archives

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208d

My Own Delightful Gordon,

Your letter has moved me deeply as you may imagine. But alas, I must ever decline to be Mrs Lowther…

—from Muriel Spark’s THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (1961): a love letter – as imagined by her pupils – from Miss Brodie to Mr Lowther, the music teacher

@bookstodon

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #novel #novella #womenwriters #MurielSpark #love #loveletters #humour #ValentinesDay