About me I’m a librarian with a background in cataloguing. I did training with Lanarkshire County Libraries way back in the late ‘60s, took a degree in librarianship at the University of Strathclyde, then worked at Edinburgh University Library as a cataloguer for five years. After some part-time work at Napier University Library, I arrived at the Scottish Poetry Library in 1993 and would like to stay forever.

Contact me about anything to do with how to get the best from our online catalogue; bibliographical enquiries; information about poets, particularly dead poets and Scottish poets; copyright issues; long-lost poems you would love to find again, even if you  only remember a few lines; how to get poems on particular subjects; poems for wedding and funeral readings and other occasions.  

My favourite poetry quote is ‘Though we live in a world that dreams of ending / that always seems about to give in / something that will not acknowledge conclusion / insists that we forever begin.’ from ‘Begin’ by Brendan Kennelly

My favourite poets are… in no order and liable to change as mood or reading changes: Willie Soutar, Helen Cruickshank, Marion Angus, Thomas Hardy, John Masefield, Derick Thomson (only in English translation, sadly), Charles Causley.

When not at work you’ll find me in the garden.

My favourite biscuit is ginger… My favourite cake is Victoria Sandwich

Me as a form of poem would be the only sort of poem I could see myself as would be something that rambles and meanders and gets distracted by shining things in the distance – something by Browning maybe?

One of the poems I carry is… ‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare – because it enchanted me when I was young, and the enchantment remains – if that isn’t poetry, what is?