Roderick Watson – författare

The Quarry Wood, although published well before Sunset Song, inhabits a similar world; the progress of its heroine could almost be the alternative story of a Chris Guthrie who did go to university. Compassionate and humorous, the grace and style of Shepherd's prose is heightened by a superb ear for the vigorous language of the north-east.The Weatherhouse, Shepherd's masterpiece, is an even more substantial achievement which belongs to the great line of Scottish fiction dealing with the complex interactions of small communities, and especially the community of women - a touching and hilarious network of mothers, daughters, spinsters and widows. It is also a striking meditation on the nature of truth, the power of human longing and the mystery of being.The third and final novel, A Pass in the Grampians, describes Jenny Kilgour's coming of age as she has to choose between the kindly harshness of her grandfather's life on a remote hill farm, and the vulgar and glorious energy of Bella Cassie, a local girl who left the community to pursue success as a singer, and has now returned to scandalise them all.The Living Mountain is a lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms. It is a work deeply rooted in Shepherd's knowledge of the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places.This omnibus edition of Shepherd's prose works reveals how her sensitivity and powers of observation raise her work far above the status of regional literature and into the front rank of Scottish writing.

Critics hailed the first edition of The Literature of Scotland as one of the most comprehensive and fascinatingly readable accounts of Scottish literature in all three of the country's languages - Gaelic, Scots and English. In this extensively revised and expanded new edition, Roderick Watson traces the lives and works of Scottish writers in a beautiful and rugged country that has been divided by political and religious conflict but united, too, by a democratic and egalitarian ideal of nationhood.The Literature of Scotland: The Twentieth Century provides a comprehensive account of the richest ever period in Scottish literary history. From The House with the Green Shutters to Trainspotting and far beyond, this companion volume to The Literature of Scotland: The Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century gives a critical and historical context to the upsurge of writing in the languages of Scotland. Roderick Watson covers a wide range of modern and contemporary Scottish authors including: MacDiarmid, MacLean, Grassic Gibbon, Gunn, Robert Garioch, Iain Crichton Smith, Alasdair Gray, Edwin Morgan, James Kelman, Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, A. L. Kennedy, Liz Lochhead, John Burnside, Jackie Kay, Kathleen Jamie and many, many more! Also featuring an extended list of Further Reading and a helpful chronological timeline, this is an indispensable introduction to the great variety of Scottish writing which has emerged since the start of the twentieth century.

This second edition of one of the most comprehensive accounts of Scottish life and literature now focuses on Medieval to Victorian times, exploring the growth of the idea of a nation from the early ballads and oral tradition to the achievement of Burns, Scott and Carlyle. The modern literature which followed is discussed in the companion volume.

For the first time, the full canon of poetry from Scotland is available to readers in one volume. The Poetry of Scotland presents all the major, and many less well-known Scottish poets in a broad historical perspective from the fourteenth century to the present day. Unlike other anthologies, it includes concise bibliographies of each writer, user-friendly notes, and poems in Gaelic with modern English translations. With contents listed by both chronology and theme, on-page glossaries and a full introduction by Roderick Watson, this is the definitive edition for students and lovers of Scottish poetry everywhere.

Norman MacCaig's poetry is clear and lucid and filled with the shifting light of Edinburgh and Assynt. MacCaig stands in the first rank of twentieth-century poets: Seamus Heaney said of him, "He means poetry to me". Roderick Watson's SCOTNOTE study guide will enhance any student's enjoyment of MacCaig's poetry, as well as providing a deeper understanding of the poet's craft.

Edwin Morgan is one of Scotland's most distinguished and popular poets. His celebration of his native city brought him the honour of Glasgow Poet Laureate, and in 2004 the Scottish Executive recognised him officially, as Scotland's first modern national poet, with the title of Scots Makar. Each poem here is read by Edwin Morgan, followed by informed and accessible commentary by Professor Roderick Watson of the University of Stirling. This CD is an excellent tool for classroom study, as well as giving listeners a chance to hear some of Scotland's best-loved poems read by the author himself.

Critics hailed the first edition of The Literature of Scotland as one of the most comprehensive and fascinatingly readable accounts of Scottish literature in all three of the country''s languages - Gaelic, Scots and English. In this extensively revised and expanded new edition, Roderick Watson traces the lives and works of Scottish writers in a beautiful and rugged country that has been divided by political and religious conflict but united, too, by a democratic and egalitarian ideal of nationhood.The Literature of Scotland: The Twentieth Century provides a comprehensive account of the richest ever period in Scottish literary history. From The House with the Green Shutters to Trainspotting and far beyond, this companion volume to The Literature of Scotland: The Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century gives a critical and historical context to the upsurge of writing in the languages of Scotland. Roderick Watson covers a wide range of modern and contemporary Scottish authors including: MacDiarmid, MacLean, Grassic Gibbon, Gunn, Robert Garioch, Iain Crichton Smith, Alasdair Gray, Edwin Morgan, James Kelman, Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, A. L. Kennedy, Liz Lochhead, John Burnside, Jackie Kay, Kathleen Jamie and many, many more! Also featuring an extended list of Further Reading and a helpful chronological timeline, this is an indispensable introduction to the great variety of Scottish writing which has emerged since the start of the twentieth century.

Critics hailed the first edition of The Literature of Scotland as one of the most comprehensive and fascinatingly readable accounts of Scottish literature in all three of the country''s languages - Gaelic, Scots and English. In this extensively revised and expanded new edition, Roderick Watson traces the lives and works of Scottish writers in a beautiful and rugged country that has been divided by political and religious conflict but united, too, by a democratic and egalitarian ideal of nationhood.The Literature of Scotland: The Twentieth Century provides a comprehensive account of the richest ever period in Scottish literary history. From The House with the Green Shutters to Trainspotting and far beyond, this companion volume to The Literature of Scotland: The Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century gives a critical and historical context to the upsurge of writing in the languages of Scotland. Roderick Watson covers a wide range of modern and contemporary Scottish authors including: MacDiarmid, MacLean, Grassic Gibbon, Gunn, Robert Garioch, Iain Crichton Smith, Alasdair Gray, Edwin Morgan, James Kelman, Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, A. L. Kennedy, Liz Lochhead, John Burnside, Jackie Kay, Kathleen Jamie and many, many more! Also featuring an extended list of Further Reading and a helpful chronological timeline, this is an indispensable introduction to the great variety of Scottish writing which has emerged since the start of the twentieth century.

''Two Men at Once'' is one of Norman MacCaig best known poems. He was indeed two men at once: Edinburgh, the city where he was born and lived as a teacher and poet, was his home, but no other place shaped his poetry more than Assynt in Sutherland. It is here that he would spend many a summer on family holidays, walking the hills and fishing the lochs. MacCaig''s fresh eye saw remarkable newness even in the everyday and each poem is a tiny revelation, a new look at an old friend. This collection celebrates, renews, and rediscovers Norman MacCaig''s Assynt.

First published in 2010 to mark the centenary of Norman MacCaig’s birth, The Many Days aims to strike a balance between representing the much-loved poems that any reader would expect to find in a selected MacCaig, and other less familiar verses. The collection is arranged to show the range of the poet’s work in all its variety, from his love of nature and the landscape of the North West Highlands to his life in Edinburgh; from his care for animals and human friendship, to his moments of joy and grief, creative delight and occasional creative dread. Time and again MacCaig returns us to that good place we know as the world, but hardly ever seen so clearly as we do in these marvellous poems.

The first half of the Twentieth Century witnessed two catastrophic global conflicts, with suffering on a scale that - thankfully - later generations find hard to comprehend. The full story of what it was like to endure these wars might never be told, because many who survived chose not to speak - or could not speak - of what they saw and suffered. But some could turn to poetry, to try to make sense of what was happening. From the Line brings together the best of Scotland's poetry from the two World Wars: 138 poems, from fifty-six poets, are represented here, from both men and women, from battlefields across the world and from the Home Front, too. There is dread in these lines as poets reflect on the loss of peace, or mourn the death of friends and comrades. Some tell of traumas that can never be shaken off, others of an intensity that would never be found again - but there is hope, too, and moments of humour, compassion and decency that survived the worst.

The SCOTNOTES booklets are a series of study guides to major Scottish writers and texts frequently used within literature courses, aimed at senior secondary school pupils and students in further education. The individual authors are not only experts on a particular writer or text but also experienced in teaching in schools or colleges.This SCOTNOTE Study Guide explores the responses of Scottish poets to the First and Second World Wars, from the sometimes jingoistic optimism of the early days of 1914, to the horrors of the trenches, to the massed and mechanised brutalities of total war – not forgetting, too, the experiences on the Home Front and the traumas of memory.