BACK LIST
JUST PUBLISHED
o A Scottish Postbag Edited by George Bruce and Paul H. Scott (Chambers £9.95) Post-scripted ‘Eight centuries of Scottish letters‘ and swathed in a dustwrapper of pillar-box red, this is the ideal gift for readers who restrict their libraries to the smallest room in the house. Here indeed are ‘The chatty, the catty. the boring. the adoring/The cold and official and the heart‘s outpouring,‘ from Mary Queen of Scots. Burns. Boswell. Hume, Scott, Stevenson, Carnegie. Maxton and a hale clamjampherie o' ithcrs. And there‘s no keeping out G.B. Shaw who has the last word.
0 The People’s War: Britain 1939—1945 Angus Calder (J. Cape £18) A reissue of the classic survey of civilian life during the last war. It evokes uniquely, and with humour and insight how it felt to be living through the hostilities.
o How to become ridiculously well-read in one evening E.O. Parrott (Penguin £2.95) Witty-ish
WATERSTONE’S BOOKSEHFRS
abbreviations ofclassics. Rhyming slanders.
o The Celtic Football Companion and The Rangers Football Companion David Docherty (John Donald £5.95 each) Post-War facts on the Old Firm. Team lists, transfers. results. scorers. league placing. attendances. You name it, there's too much ofit. 0 Head Above Water Buchi Emecheta (Flamingo £3.50) The tough time of the Nigerian novelist as she struggles to survive as a single parent in unsympathetic London. The Maya Angelou ofMuswell Hill.
0 An Unlikely Anger David Ross (Mainstream £2.95) This was not the book the author meant to write. neither is it the book he was meant to be writing. But the grand design of Vol 2 of the history of the EIS was dustered out when Scottish teenagers tangled with the Government. Well-disposed towards the dominies An Unlikely Anger puts into perspective the present dispute ofwhich new chapters could be written daily.
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was wrong.
.David Gascoyn
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o The Best Years at Their Live Royle (Michael Joseph £12.95) A pioneering investigation of conscription 1945—63. much reliant on the testimony ofex-servicemen‘s bitter-sweet memories. Short on nostalgic de la boue ou la boot polish.
o The Monkey Gland Altair David Hamilton (Chatto £l 1.95) The sad and fascinating story of the misguided Serge Voronoff. the Parisian surgeon who believed that life in old dogs could be sustained by grafting ofmonkeys‘ testicles. He
REVIEWS
0 Portraits ol Poets Christopher Barker (Carcanet £9.95) In the popular imagination the Muse communicates through cloak-clad. long-haired romantics. That may well have been the casein bygone days. pre Burtons and barber shops. but now — if the evidence before my eyes is to be reckoned with — poets could be anyone.
Some. it is true. particularly the male of the species. sport apparel one normally associates with the modern heirs to Byron. Tweed jackets and corduroys have not. lam relieved to impart. disappeared entirely from the versifiers‘ wardrobe. but more common is what can best be described as ‘casual gear' or leisure wear. Thus the islomane Lawrence Durrell (dear. oh dear)
looks about to embark on a round of golf in a natty polo neck. lan Hamilton Findlay. the Spartan warrior. in checked shirt and fleecy jerkin. wears the melancholy air ofa grounded mountaineer. and George Barker sports the symbol of the Status Quo. denim. Denim! Those who prefer conventional shirts seem not to know what to do with them. prompting thought that a manual of style might be useful. Natty Norman MacCaig sticks his collar over his jumper. like a choirboy‘s ruffle. Charles Causley has managed to contain both tie and shirt within a durrie and Eddie Morgan dares to go open-necked. as I assume does Ian Crichton Smith. though shadow could be obscuring a rather hip buttoned top button. Could he also be wearing black suede shoes?
Few of the poets here are avant garde dressers. their garb reflecting their poetic bent. and some — Larkin. Amis. Hughes — are suitably sober-suited. as ifcaught between halves of a committee meeting. No. there is nothing wild about this chorus line (except some errant locks of hair. notably on trowel-jawed George Mackay Brown who has the excuse of having been snapped in the Orcadian outdoors) and only a few look mildly raffish; David Gascoyne. by dint ofa Paisley-pattern bow-tie. or Anthony Cronin in his punter‘s bunnet. ln black and white the more conspicuous physiognomic evidence of misspent youth is muted. Yet Christopher Barker effectively conjures up a mood of mystery. of dark unspeakable things. by allowing only the weakest of lights to seep in. Still. many ofhis subjects manage to illuminate their sombre surroundings and become puckish and playful. And what a devilish idea it was to capture Crichton Smith in church. (Alan Taylor)
0 Edinburgh Portraits Michael Turnbull (John Donald £6.50) A curious minestrone of facts about the hundreds — both residents and visitors — who have made Edinburgh such a fascinating place. People as diverse as John Knox. the Bay City Rollers and the Emperor's Warriors.
of Sorley Maclean
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BOOKS!
Look out for these titles in all good bookshops
RIS A‘ BHRUTHAICH The Criticism & Prose Writings
MACLENNANS DICTIONARY and for children . . . CAORAN ANN AN CLIABl-l, SEINN SEO, STOBAG BHEAG OR FROM: 7 James Street, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis
GO LISTEN TO THE CROFTERS
EILEAN FRAOICH
FIRST OF
43 CANUl {MAKER Row E DINBURGH {111208
39;) XIX}: .
BOOKS
aren’t all we sell. We’vegot CALENDARS,CARDS CRACKERSPIARIES ' . t: T-SHIRTS and MUGS m ~
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54The List 12 Dec—8Jan