Banned from the College Club after last year, when a disgruntled
undergraduate put his boot through the 400 year old reinforced glass
in ye auncient swing doors, the EngandScotLit Xmas Party took place
in the Glasgow University Union last night.
No disco, but a reading was arranged in tribute to Edwin Morgan,
which featured the man hisself, Alasdair Gray and Tom Leonard.
Before the reading, Morgan was presented with "a carving of himself."
A remarkable piece of work, the exact size and shape of a headstone
but in wood, which had been unevenly stained, suggesting it had been
carved from the trunk of a tree which had grown in the grounds of a
home for aged dogs with serious kidney infections. The peculiar
bas-relief representation of Morgan himself, without his glasses but
wearing a pair of enormous lapels, looked like Tollund Man in a
flasher`s raincoat.
Alasdair Gray read an early short story, which went down surprisingly
well, considering that 80 per cent of the assembly had been obliged
to write essays on POOR THINGS the previous term. Then Tom
Leonard, who is great. Catch him if you can on Nicholas Johnson`s
Never-Ending "Where Does The Money Come From?" Tour, at a
venue near you, shortly. He has written some new and very funny and
very moving new poems. Tom Leonard, not Nicholas Johnson.
Edwin Morgan read too. What a nice man.
robin
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