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Silly me! I forgot to say that JC in this week's Times Literary Supplement
gives a big plug to Nick Johnson's `Pervigilium Scotiae' with an
emphasis on Hamish. Unusual notice for a small press. Etruscan Books.




Hamish (or to be more precise his publisher Nicholas Johnson) got
a big plug for his third-share in the new Etruscan Reader which also
contains work by Sorley Maclean and Tom Scott. In these Etruscan
Readers (120+ pages for 7.50 pounds) Nick goes out of his way to
publish work not previously seen in book form. Hamish's contribution
is pretty much a Selected Poems from the past fifty years. Tunes are
given for the four great songs. I think Sorley's contribution contains
some previously unpublished `Poems to Eimhir' in his own translation.
He is an enormous poet and dwarfs the others. (Tom Scott has never been
to my taste). But the guts of Sorley's contribution is translations
of Gaelic poems/songs. A book not to be missed in Scotland.

etruscan books, 24a Fore Street, Buckfastleigh, South Devon TQ11 0AA.

SPD of Berkeley, California distribute in the USA.

And a final sad note of my own. Alan Bold died last week at 54.
I remember drinking with him over thirty years ago in Milnes in
Edinburgh when it was a respectable pub. His poetry came to nothing
but I enjoyed his MacDiarmid and was very much looking forward to
his Burns. I hope something can be salvaged and we wont just have
`Rhyming Rab'.


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