Square Baw

Hamish MacDonald is a poet, playwright and novelist with works published, broadcast and performed in Scots and English. He is a contributor to several publications by Scots language imprint Itchy Coo Publishing and has worked as writer and presenter on historical and political documentaries for BBC Radio Scotland including ‘The Scot Who Stayed in Argentina’, telling the story of political intrigues at the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He was the first Robert Burns Writing Fellow for Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association (2003–05) and the first Scots Scriever for the National Library of Scotland (2015–17). As performance poet he became Scottish Slam Poetry champion in 2022 and runner-up in the Coupe du Monde de Poesie world slam poetry fi nals in Paris in the same year, as well as a semifinalist at the World Poetry Slam, Rio de Janeiro in 2023. A lifelong fan of Clydebank Football Club, since 2020 he has fulfilled the role of Bankies Bard as honorary poet of the club. His most recent poetry collections include ‘Wilson’s Ornithology & Burds in Scots’ (Scotland Street Press) and ‘Kilbowie Dreams’ (Clydebank Football Club).

Poignant, funny, on-target and true, this is a cracking collection of poems.Even for someone who is not a diehard football follower, Hamish MacDonald’s exploration of what really makes the Scottish game tick is rich and revealing. It digs down to the roots, touching on issues of class, community and politics as it goes, and is as much a social and family history as it is a record of local heroes, close miracles and glorious failures - the world so brilliantly captured in just one of the poems, ‘The Fitba Multiverse’.With its powerful evocation of men and boys who loved the game going off to war and coming back to poverty or not coming back at all, Square Baw makes a persuasive argument in support of the Shankly dictum that football is much more important than a matter of life and death.         James Roberston, author of The Testament of Gideon Mack