The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry

Selected for the pleasure and interest they offer these 400 or so poems from more than 150 poets span the entire century. While the major figures - MacDiarmid pre-eminently, and others such as Norman MacCaig, Iain Crichton Smith, and George Mackay Brown - are generously represented, there are many other voices, from the master balladeer of the Yukon, Robert Service, to the internationally-known psychiatrist R D Laing, the distinguished economist Sir Alec Cairncross, and the troubled but deeply eloquent Rayne Mackinnon.

Women are given due prominence. Readers unfamiliar with Helen Adam will experience a frisson at the sexual tensions of her ballad-poems while Naomi Mitchison reveals her intimate self. The admirable Marion Angus, Violet Jacob, and Helen B Cruickshank show their talents, while contemporary poets Liz Lochhead, Carol Ann Duffy, Janet Paisley, Jackie Kay, and many others, are well represented.

In a century of unprecedented change, the poems also act as a commentary on their times - and Scotland's war poets such as Charles Hamilton Sorley and Hamish Henderson, with their anger and eloquence, are included. With its lively engagement with the real world as well as the world of private creativity, this anthology will contribute to an ongoing sense of Scottish cultural identity.

Key Features

• Includes more than 400 poems (compared to the 300 in the Faber volume)
• Represents more than 150 poets (compared to the 70 or so in the Faber volume)
• EUP's anthology spans the entire C20th century (while the Faber volume was published in the early 1990s)
• The EUP volume includes more women poets than the Faber volume
• The EUP volume is alphabetically arranged for ease of use (compared to the chronological arrangement of the Faber volume)
• The EUP anthology includes biographjcal notes on each of the poets (which the Faber volume does not have)