Addressing expansive themes—from love and power to submission and death—this collection of poetry, culled from the author's impressive 40 year career, employs a tender, moving voice. Encapsulating the splintered lifestyles of the islands in northern Scotland, these works carry a central theme of culture divided while touching on subjects such as the tyranny of religion, the cramped life in a small community, and the struggles faced by men and women in a world defined by denials.
Iain Crichton Smith (Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn) was a Scottish man of letters, writing in both English and Gaelic, and a prolific author in both languages. He is known for poetry, short stories and novels.
He was born in Glasgow, but moved to the isle of Lewis at the age of two, where he and his two brothers were brought up by their widowed mother in the small crofting town of Bayble, which also produced Derick S. Thomson. Educated at the University of Aberdeen, Crichton Smith took a degree in English, and after serving in the National Service Army Education Corps, went on to become a teacher.
He taught in Clydebank, Dumbarton and Oban from 1952, retiring to become a full-time writer in 1977, although he already had many novels and poems published. He was awarded an OBE in 1980.
If you live in the highlands and always feel isolated and sad but also morbidly nationalist and romantic about it then this is for you. Put his whole Crichussy into this.
I first read Ian Crichton Smith’s Iolaire and Old Woman when I was in school. Years later, I picked up this book. I enjoyed most of these poems and read the book over a long time, picking it up between other books.