Edited by Mary Miers (2010, Eland)
There are few landscapes in the western world more bewitching than the mountain glens of the Scottish Highlands and the scattered islands of the Hebrides. The beauty of the region, its tumultuous history and the musical and poetic nature of its people, has produced a remarkable oral heritage. This beautiful anthology includes verse by gentle scholar saints, epic tales of clan rivalry, incantations and stirring panegyrics by the Gaelic bards, Jacobite songs and satires, laments inspired by love and exile, and great poems from the recent renaissance in the Gàidhealtachd. Mary Miers lives in Ross-shire and has a long association with the Outer Hebrides through her Clanranald forbears and her family home in South Uist. Her accompanying commentaries combine a deep knowledge of the places, people and psyche of the Highlands and Islands seen through the eyes of a travelling scholar of architecture.
ON-LINE 5-STAR REVIEWS of Highlands & Islands
*****Indispensable
“A superb selection, indispensable as a travelling companion, along with Mary Miers’s excellent architectural guide to the Western Seaboard, which is so much more than just an architectural guide. ‘Midge’ by Edwin Morgan should serve as a warning to first time travellers to the Western Highlands.”
Local lass, 7 Feb. 2011
*****Poetry of place, poetry of heart
“A little belter of a book, historic, atmospheric, passionate, contemplative, the perfect companion for any trip to the Islands and Highlands.
I think ‘Scotland Small?’ to be a perfect poem for those with preconceived ideas of Scotland. The place is like no other and all its facets are captured in one poem or another here. Very well put together. I’d suggest like others, dip in and out randomly.”
M. Shuttleworth, 5 Sep. 2016
*****A triumph
“A triumph of a pocket book. I take it with me everywhere! Mary Miers presents these poems with sensitivity and clarity. It is a joy.”
Noonah, 1 Nov. 2015