James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. He is best known for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Suzanne Gilbert, senior lecturer in English at Stirling University, publishes on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scottish literature, ballads, and chapbooks. She and Ian Duncan are general editors of the Stirling/South Carolina Research Edition of The Collected Works of James Hogg (Edinburgh University Press), for which she co-edited Queen Hynde (1998) and edited The Mountain Bard (2007). Her edition of Hogg’s Scottish Pastorals for the series is forthcoming. The late Douglas S. Mack was formerly Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Stirling.

Of the poem itself, one has to say that it is extraordinary and for many of us it is likely to count as a major Hogg 'discovery' ... its new accessibility is an exciting and necessary contribution to our understanding of Hogg ... The notes can be read themselves, for pleasure. Many are substantial essays in their own right. They confirm the impression given by the edition as a whole, that the editorial task has been undertaken with a peculiar degree of commitment and with a determination that a long-postponed duty towards James Hogg will now be undertaken with a thoroughness which should stand the test of time. Of the poem itself, one has to say that it is extraordinary and for many of us it is likely to count as a major Hogg 'discovery' ... its new accessibility is an exciting and necessary contribution to our understanding of Hogg ... The notes can be read themselves, for pleasure. Many are substantial essays in their own right. They confirm the impression given by the edition as a whole, that the editorial task has been undertaken with a peculiar degree of commitment and with a determination that a long-postponed duty towards James Hogg will now be undertaken with a thoroughness which should stand the test of time.