Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Makar – National Poet
      • Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine
      • A Woman’s A Woman
      • The story of the Makar – National Poet of Scotland
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Spiorad an Àite
      Spirit of Place
    • The Trysting Thorns
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • Posters
    • Podcasts
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Designing sensory poetry activities
    • Children’s poems in Scots
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
    • Exhibitions
  • Shop
    • Poetry Highlights
    • Entropie Books
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • Our projects
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Poets
  • >
  • Leonard McDermid
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Leonard McDermid

b.1933

Leonard McDermid © Mike Knowles
POEMS

Leonard McDermid has enjoyed over seventy years of looking at things, and over fifty years of commenting on them in various forms and in a variety of ways.

He left school at fifteen and worked at several jobs including that of papermaker, lorry, coach and taxi driver and trawlerman. He served two years as a National Serviceman in the Royal Artillery, and later studied at Medway College of Art, Brighton College of Art, Newbattle Abbey College and the University of Edinburgh.

He taught for many years, mainly in the Scottish Borders. He also undertook two appointments as artist to The Marine Society working on merchant vessels. He covered over fifty thousand ocean miles world-wide, including work on a troopship ferrying troops across the South Atlantic and on a tanker in the Arabian Gulf during the ‘Tanker War’.

McDermid established the Stichill Marigold Press in 1990; under this imprint he has produced many small artistic pamphlets. Landway won the final Callum Macdonald Memorial Award in 2017.  

He currently lives in the Scottish Borders.

Read more

Read the poems

  • Night River

From the Library Catalogue

Publications by Leonard McDermid

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library