The Many Days

by Norman MacCaig

The Many Days

£12.99

‘If you wish to read some of the finest poetry ever written, are interested in the life and viewpoints of one of Scotland’s greatest ever poets, perhaps need to reaffirm what it is that makes poetry unique among all art forms and what it is that poets aspire to or simply want to witness how a true master executed his craft, then you will buy this book’ – The Eildon Tree

‘Illuminatingly breaks down the work into thematic areas that allow the poems to speak not only for themselves but also, in Watson’s arresting phrase, among themselves’ – Brian Morton, Scottish Review of Books

‘Norman MacCaig is an indispensable poet’ – Douglas Dunn

‘Clear-eyed but spirited, delightful but sharp, emotive but never sentimental, this selection is representative of an important and influential poet’ – Kevin MacNeil

‘MacCaig is the poet who speaks to me most clearly of the Scotland I know. He had a strange gritty reserve but also a passion about landscape and the way people lived. I find his poetry constantly energising’ – James Naughtie, The Daily Express

On the centenary of his birth one hundred of Norman MacCaig’s best poems are brought together, edited by Roderick Watson. MacCaig’s fresh eye saw remarkable newness even in the everyday so each poem, although grouped in related subjects, is a tiny revelation, a new look at an old friend. Celebrate, renew, discover Norman MacCaig on the one hundredth anniversary of his birth.

Norman MacCaig (1910-96) was born in Edinburgh. He lived there all his life, though lengthy annual visits to Assynt enriched his life and work. He attended the Royal High School, studied Classics at Edinburgh University and then trained as a teacher. Having spent years teaching in primary schools, he later taught Creative Writing at Edinburgh University, then at the University of Stirling. In later life MacCaig’s reputation grew even further and his work was recognised by the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and many other distinctions. However, his reputation as the ‘grand old man’ of Scottish poetry rested less on these than on his continuing creative work, his teaching and reading, and his fruitful influence on younger writers.