Poet's Pub

My recent run of 8 Scottish Poets is at an end, and some of you may have guessed their 'loose connection' ...

... they all feature in Sandy Moffat's famous "Poet's Pub" picture, which is on display within the Scottish National Portrait Gallery - you can read a bit more about the painting here; the main thrust of which follows below:

"Moffat's group portrait is an imaginary vision of the major Scottish poets and writers of the second half of the twentieth century gathered around the central figure of Hugh MacDiarmid. From left to right, they are: Norman MacCaig, Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley Maclean, Iain Crichton Smith, George Mackay Brown, Sydney Goodsir Smith, Edwin Morgan and Robert Garioch."

The snap I've taken here is from the front-cover of a (March) 1981 volume, which is within my poetry collection, with interviews and various snippets of verse from these wonderful writers. At the time of its publication all but MacDiarmid and Goodsir Smith were still alive: sadly they're all now deceased.

Thankfully, we did get to hear Norman MacCaig at a poetry event, back in 1990, down at the Southbank Centre in London. He was totally spellbinding :-)