100 Favourite Scottish Poems Edited by Stewart Conn

Poems to make you laugh. Poems to make you cry. Poems to make you think. Poems to savour. Poems to read out loud. To read again, and again. Scottish poems. Old favourites. New favourites. 100 of the best.

Scotland has a long history of producing outstanding poetry. From the humblest but-and-ben to the grandest castle, the nation has a great tradition of celebration and commemoration through poetry. 100 Favourite Scottish Poems – incorporating the top 20 best-loved poems as selected by a BBC Radio Scotland listener poll – ranges from ballads to Burns, from `Proud Maisie’ to `The Queen of Sheba’, and from `Cuddle Doon’ to `The Jeelie Piece Song’.

Edited by Stewart Conn, poet and inaugural recipient of the Institute of Contemporary Scotland’s Iain Crichton Smith Award for services to literature (2006).

Reviews:

Both wit and wisdom, and that fusion of the two which can touch the heart as well as the mind, distinguishes the work selected by Stewart Conn for his anthology 100 Favourite Scottish Poems (Luath Press and Scottish Poetry Library, £7.99). This lovely little book ranges from Dunbar to Douglas Dunn, taking in just about all the major and most of the minor Scottish poets of the centuries by means of their most memorable writing.  The Scotsman

It is… a highly varied collection and one that should fulfill Conn’s hopes of whetting the reader’s appetite… this is both a taster and a volume of substance.  The Herald Guide

a richly diverse collection of poems in English, Scots, Gaelic and Shetlandic (…) They reflect not only the many traditions on which Scottish poetry has drawn, but also the range and variety of contemporary Scottish poetry, which forms the bulk of the collection.  Northwords Now

This book might be better called 50 Favourites and 50 Surprises, and that’s no bad thing!  Scottish Arts Council