Hallaig and Other Poems: Selected Poems of Sorley MacLean

by Sorley MacLean

Hallaig and Other Poems: Selected Poems of Sorley MacLean

£12.00

‘A collection that explodes the cliché of Gaelic poetry’ – Guardian on Sorley MacLean: Collected Poems

‘Convincingly demonstrates why MacLean was as important an influence on the badachd as Eliot and Pound were on English-language poetry – Sunday Herald on Sorley MacLean: Collected Poems

‘One of the very greatest of the Gaelic poets … and one of the great love poets of the world’ – Iain Crichton Smith

This selected works of Sorley MacLean brings together published poetry from MacLean’s own edited volumes of Poetry. The poems will be given in their original Gaelic with English translations and introduced by Angus Peter Campbell and Aonghas Mac Neacail.

Sorley MacLean was born on the island of Raasay in 1911. He was brought up within a family and community immersed in Gaelic language and culture, particularly song. He studied English at Edinburgh University from 1929, taking a first-class honours degree. Despite this influence, he eventually adopted Gaelic as the medium most appropriate for his poetry. He translated much of his own work into English, opening it up to a wider public. He fought in North Africa during World War II, before taking up a career in teaching, holding posts on Mull, in Edinburgh and finally as Head Teacher at Plockton High School. Amongst other awards and honours, he received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1990. He died in 1996 at the age of 85.

Angus Peter Campbell (Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul) is an award-winning poet and novelist in both Gaelic and English, journalist, broadcaster and actor. Born and brought up on the Island of South Uist he now lives on the Isle of Skye with his wife and family. His Gaelic novel An Oidhche mus do Sheòl Sinn (2004) was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and was voted by the public into the Top 10 of the 100 Best Ever Books from Scotland in the Orange/List magazine awards.

Aonghas MacNeacail was born in Uig on Skye in 1942. He is a poet and songwriter, journalist, researcher, broadcaster, scriptwriter and filmmaker. He has published collections of poems in both Gaelic and English, and his writing has appeared in literary journals in Scotland and worldwide. He was winner of the 2006 Gaelic Prize of the Wigtown Poetry Competition for his poem ‘An fhìor bheinn’, and in 2007 was among the prize-winners of the major Ireland-based Strokestown International Poetry Competition.