ASLS Annual Volumes – serie

"Serving Twa Maisters" brings together five plays in Scots translation: "Let Wives Tak Tent" (Robert Kemp's version of Moliere's "L'Ecole des Femmes"); "The Burdies" (Douglas Young's version of Aristophanes' "The Birds"); "The Servant o' Twa Maisters" (adapted by Victor Carin from "Il Servitore di Due Padroni", by Carlo Goldoni); "The Hypochondriak" (Hector MacMillan's version of Moliere's "Malade Imaginaire"); and Peter Arnott's Scots translation of Bertold Brecht's "Mr Puntilla and His Man Matti". Scholarly editorial notes and a full glossary are also included.

James Bridie was one of the most influential British dramatists of the 20th century. This new collection includes "The Sunlight Sonata", "A Sleeping Clergyman", "Mr Bolfry", and "Daphne Laureola", along with what is possibly Bridie's most famous work, "The Anatomist": the tale of Dr. Knox and his relationship with Edinburgh's notorious bodysnatchers, Burke and Hare. All the plays are accompanied by extensive scholarly notes and a glossary.

Growing out of roots planted in the Great Depression and the chaos of the Second World War, Glasgow Unity Theatre grew into the most celebrated and influential of mid-twentieth century Scottish theatre companies, successfully developing the theatrical styles and political commitments of the organisations from which it came. This new publication contains acting scripts of five of their most important plays, including Ena Lamont Stewart's "Men Should Weep" in its previously-unpublished first version, and a play from the 1950s, "All in Good Faith", by Roddy McMillan, who had begun his career as one of Unity's outstanding performers. Along with Unity's celebrated achievements in the late 1940s - Robert McLeish's "The Gorbals Story", George Munro's "Gold in his Boots", and Benedick Scott's "The Lambs of God" - this volume allows Unity's work to be read together, for the first time, and seen fully in the context of its period and influence. Here too we can see a use of Scots language far removed from the pantomime, music-hall and comedy of the contemporary stage, and capable instead of conveying genuine and universal emotions.

'The Cottagers of Glenburnie' presents vivid depictions - and biting satires - of Scottish peasant life. It also skillfully discusses and dissects class issues, British imperialism, and war.

Allan Cunningham's Traditional Tales is a selection of folk stories steeped in the traditions and popular literature of southern Scotland and northern England. Originally published in 1822, this was one of the earliest collections of folktales ever produced in Britain. Operating within the debateable land between fact and fancy, mixing the natural and supernatural, they blur the distinction between the oral traditions of the distant past and emerging ideas of literature and modernity. Cunningham's Traditional Tales form an essential part of folkloric history, as well as being fascinating stories in their own right.

Although her reputation now rests on her poems on women's rights, the Glasgow poet Marion Bernstein (1846 - 1906) recognised little distinction between gender equality and social equality. She had no patience for those who claimed privilege over others. She valued her fellow poets, many of whom were from the working classes, and she populated her poems with an array of ordinary citizens: postmen, riveters, fishermen, street musicians, even a victim of intemperance. In her enlightened poem 'Human Rights' she advocated universal equality and gave her vision of a world run by women: 'We'd give fair play, let come what might, / To he or she folk, black or white, / And haste the reign of Human Right.' A Song of Glasgow Town contains all of Bernstein's 198 published poems, along with a detailed introduction to her life and work, and extensive notes explaining the background to each poem. These verses provide a fascinating insight into Glasgow in the late Victorian age, at a time of unprecedented social and economic change.

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.

Mary Paterson, or, The Fatal Error is a high-Victorian tale of the tragic life, and sorry end, of poor Mary Paterson: her fall from grace, her unhappy loves - and her final grisly demise at the hands of Burke and Hare, who kept Edinburgh's anatomists supplied with freshly manufactured corpses. But the melodrama doesn't stop with Mary lying cold upon the dissecting slab: David Pae's galloping novel, originally serialised in the Dundee People's Journal in 1864 and 1865, hounds Burke and Hare to their capture and trial, leads Burke to the gallows, and thereafter follows Hare and his accomplices to their various just deserts. The Scottish writer David Pae was one of the most successful serial novelists of his day. Edited by Caroline McCracken-Flesher, this new edition of Pae's original and unexpurgated tale not only provides a fascinating window into the popular Victorian imagination but is also a highly entertaining novel in its own right.

The twentieth-century Scottish Renaissance saw a sudden and dramatic change in Scotland's literary landscape. Beginning in the 1920s, Scottish writers increasingly engaged with contemporary social and political issues, and with questions of national identity. An integral part of this development was the radically new literary status accorded to the Scots language. MacDiarmid's immediate predecessors had introduced modern themes and linguistic experimentation to Scots poetry; and though MacDiarmid is the unquestioned central figure in the great poetic revival, he rode a rising tide. He and the poets who paved the way for him represent the first wave of the Scottish Renaissance. The second wave contains the extraordinary company of poets who wrote under his direct inspiration. On any showing, the scale and quality of this movement is a phenomenon rarely paralleled in literary history. A Kist o Skinklan Things contains a selection of the best work from this great period.

“I try to write something every day even though I am not writing poetry, just to get myself in touch with language.”—Edwin MorganEdwin Morgan (1920–2010) is one of the giants of modern literature. Scotland’s national poet from 2004 to his death, throughout his long life he produced an astonishing variety of work, from the playful to the profound.Edwin Morgan: In Touch With Language presents previously uncollected prose – journalism, book and theatre reviews, scholarly essays and lectures, drama and radio scripts, forewords and afterwords – all carefully moulded to the needs of differing audiences. Morgan’s writing fizzes with clarity and verve: the topics range from Gilgamesh to Ginsberg, from cybernetics to sexualities, from international literatures to the changing face of his home city of Glasgow. Everyone will find surprises and delights in this new collection.

Compared to Gaelic poetry, the history of Gaelic theatre has not been a particularly long one, with the first examples appearing in the eighteenth century. However, drama in Gaelic began to thrive in the twentieth century, and modern Gaelic drama has the power to break down barriers and to touch people across linguistic and cultural divides.This collection is a celebration of this often-overlooked genre, bringing together eight Gaelic plays from the start of the twentieth century to the present day. Accessible to non-Gaelic speakers, this book contains English translations as well as an introduction to the history of Gaelic theatre, and to the playwrights whose skill and commitment to their art deserves much wider recognition.ContentsRèiteach Mòraig (Morag’s Betrothal) – Iain M. MacLeòidAm Fear a Chaill a Ghàidhlig (The Man Who Lost His Gaelic) – Iain MacCormaigCeann Cropic – Fionnlagh MacLeòidTog Orm Mo Speal (Give Me My Scythe) – Iain Mac a’ GhobhainnÒrdugh na Saorsa (Order of Release) – Tormod Calum DòmhnallachSequamur – Dòmhnall S. Moireach (Gaelic by Catrìona Dunn)Scotties – Muireann Kelly with Francis PoetBana-Ghaisgich (Heroines) – Màiri Nic’IlleMhoire

A great deal of excellent poetry was composed in Scotland in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In 1603, when James Stewart became also king of England and Ireland, several Scottish poets moved to London, and commented on events at Court. Others preferred to remain in their homeland, at a distance from the metropolis; and some who had gone south soon returned home. In addition to the perennial themes of love and religion, attention was given to topics such as national identity, foreign travel, civil society, monarchy, the good life, friendship, retreat, and the nature and language of literature itself. Poets faced the political and cultural challenges inherent in the novel concept of Great Britain in a variety of ways, and the thistle and the rose bloomed together in the Jacobean garden of verses.

The poetry of Helen Craik (1751–1825), Gothic novelist and friend of Robert Burns, was long thought lost. The rediscovery of her manuscript Poems by a Lady (1790), transcribed and annotated here for the first time, invites a fresh evaluation of her life and work. From short satires and verse-letters to longer dramatic monologues of psychological introspection, these thirty-nine poems offer an invaluable insight into her social circle in the Dumfries area and her wide literary interests, demonstrating the distinctive imagination later seen in Craik’s novels. The introduction discusses Craik’s biography and the major themes in her work, casting new light on why, two years after finishing these poems, she suddenly left home and family. With full notes on each poem’s background, and additional source material, this volume adds significantly to Craik scholarship and to the critical reassessment of poetry by Scottish women in the Romantic era.

First published in 1973, Haste Ye Back is a lively and intimate portrayal of Aberlour Orphanage in Banffshire, where Dorothy K. Haynes (1918–1987) spent four formative years in her childhood. Best known as a writer of gothic and supernatural fiction, here Haynes’s vivid imagination brings to life the residents, caretakers and stories of the institution that irrevocably shaped her.In this new edition, the complete text of Haste Ye Back is reprinted alongside additional material by Haynes: three previously unpublished reminiscences on Aberlour Orphanage, and ‘The Head’, the winner of the 1947 Tom-Gallon Trust Award and a fine example of the author’s haunting short fiction. Opening with a fresh and considered look at Haynes’s life and work, this volume re-introduces a long-neglected writer of striking originality.

These five plays address cultural and political mythmaking, both modern and historical, in Scotland and internationally. With their fascinatingly fresh approaches to dramatic possibilities and dynamic theatricality, they do so with both shocking directness and laugh-out-loud humour. Setting the Stage is an indispensable volume for Scottish theatre and literature lovers.The playwrights published here – Peter Arnott, Ian Brown, Jo Clifford, Sue Glover, and Rona Munro – are all key figures in modern Scottish drama. These significant playtexts each mark an important, theatrically experimental development in Scottish playwriting from the 1970s and 1980s, and are published here for the first time.This collection, edited by Steven Cramer, distinguished former theatre editor of The List, and John Corbett, an authority on the use of Scots in literature, comprisesfive innovative plays by leading playwrightsa fascinating general introduction by Cramerauthor introductions to each play

Alan Sharp (1934–2013) is best remembered today as a screenwriter, the author of classic Hollywood movies such as Ulzana’s Raid (1972) and Night Moves (1975), as well as the 1995 film Rob Roy, starring Liam Neeson. But his writing career really began with the publication in 1965 of his award-winning – and taboo-breaking – novel A Green Tree in Gedde.A Green Tree in Gedde is a multilayered, interlinked narrative of the developing lives of three young men and one young woman, all wrestling with the world and their places in it. The novel is a rebellion against the stifling orthodoxy of the so-called “swinging Sixties” as experienced in the west of Scotland, and originally gained notoriety for its frank depictions of sex and sexualities. More recently, critics have looked askance at its treatment of female and gay characters – and yet Sharp’s novel is complex, and there are subtleties here which deserve attention too. A Green Tree in Gedde is a lyrical work in praise of the centrality of the provincial, and the universality of the local. Although it remains controversial, it is nevertheless “a flagship of 1960s Scottish prose”.