Poet’s revolution helped bring back Scots literature

Published on Saturday 31 December 2011 00:15

HUGH MacDiarmid (1892-1978) started a Scottish literary revolution in the first half of the 20th century which helped restore indigenous Scots literature.

A leading member of the Scottish Renaissance, he argued that English could not convey the complexities of the Scottish psyche and encouraged others to write in the Scots tongue. MacDiarmid was born Christopher Murray Grieve, the son of a postman in Langholm, Dumfriesshire.

He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War before becoming a journalist and poet.

Dr Alan Riach, lecturer in Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow and an expert in MacDiarmid’s work, said: “The ideal that he’s talking about is a social ideal of equal opportunities. MacDiarmid was a founder member of the National Party in 1928 which went on to become the SNP in 1934.

“If you look at the entire history of the past, in terms of Scotland and the Scots language it has been neglected, undervalued, under researched. Most people don’t know about it.”

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