Poetry anthology review: Scottish Poetry 8 an anthology edited by Maurice Lindsay et al.

Here is a collection of poetry by Scottish authors from the 1970s. It is a interesting mix of poets with poetry in English and in Scottish. Now I do love that there was poetry in Scottish because it is full of Scottish authors however I found reading some bits a little challenging. Some poems had English as well as Scottish but I was reading one poem towards the end which I struggled to read. Nevertheless I was not deterred from reading this book which I liked. It had a great diversity of different Scottish poets from that time period including Robin Fulton, Liz Lochhead, Alexander Scott and Anne Stevenson.

For me this is a celebration of Scottish poets and I love that. From a 'Fisherman's Pub' (Norman MacCraig) to 'Durham Market' (Derek Bowman), this collection offers a lot. Because the poems and their poets were so different, it kept the book enganging which meant I wanted to finish it. Sometimes I have read collections or even just books that you just want to put down when they are just a bit boring. I did not find this with this collection. I must admit though that the collection is heavy with poets who were men I believe. I understand that the 1970s was a different time so I would not expect a lot of women and certainly not anyone who was non-binary. Still, it does not mean the collection was all bad. It was not a favourite of mine though it was good. I am giving it a 6/10.

Until next time,

Thomas.