Association for Scottish Literature
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asls.org.uk
Association for Scottish Literature
@asls.org.uk
8.4K followers 2.2K following 5.2K posts
Educational charity promoting the reading, writing, teaching & study of Scotland's literature & languages, past & present.

https://asls.org.uk
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asls.org.uk
Dear Ann, wherever you are
Since you lately learnt to die,
You are this unsetting star
That shines unchanged in my eye…

Born in Kirkwall, Ann Scott-Moncrieff was a friend of the Orkney poet & translator Edwin Muir, who wrote this poem for her when she died.
#womenwriters #C20th
7/7
Edwin Muir FOR ANN SCOTT-MONCRIEFF (1914–1943) Dear Ann, wherever you are Since you lately learnt to die, You are this unsetting star That shines unchanged in my eye; So near, inaccessible, Absent and present so much Since out of the world you fell, Fell from hearing and touch— So near. But your mortal tongue Used for immortal use, The grace of a woman young, The air of an early muse, The wealth of the chambered brow And soaring flight of your eyes: These are no longer now. Death has a princely prize. You who were Ann much more Than others are that or this, Extravagant over the score To be what only is, Would you not still say now What you once used to say Of the great Why and How, On that or the other day? For though of your heritage The minority here began, Now you have come of age And are entirely Ann. Under the years’ assaults, In the storm of good and bad, You too had the faults That Emily Brontë had, Ills of body and soul, Of sinner and saint and all Who strive to make themselves whole, Smashed to bits by the Fall. Yet ‘the world is a pleasant place’ I can hear your voice repeat, While the sun shone in your face Last summer in Princes Street.
January 11, 2026 at 4:39 PM
asls.org.uk
‘The air of an early muse’: The Visionary Fictions of Ann Scott-Moncrieff
Linden Bicket, SCOTTISH LITERARY REVIEW 16/2, 2024

Available online via @projectmuse.bsky.social (institutional subscription required)
#womenwriters #C20th
6/7
muse.jhu.edu/pub/243/arti...
Abstract This article offers the first sustained critical consideration of four short stories by Ann Scott-Moncrieff which were published posthumously in Chapman magazine (Spring 1987). In presenting synopses and close readings of ‘The Longest Day’, ‘Strong Girl’, ‘Threesome’ and ‘Nothatus’, I make a claim for Scott-Moncrieff’s (now largely overlooked) place within the ‘Renaissance’ project of cultural renewal during the inter-war era. I contend that an active politics and religious belief are two clear strands of Scott-Moncrieff’s writing and argue that her exploration of girlhood, nationhood and sexual politics are especially fresh and welcome interventions within the literary landscape of revival. Ultimately, this article makes the case for renewed critical attention to Scott-Moncrieff’s writing for an adult market.
January 11, 2026 at 4:39 PM
asls.org.uk
“We shall never know how much Scottish literature lost by that early death”

Born with an oar in her fists: Ann Scott-Moncrieff
A talk by Jean Findlay – the George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture 2020
#womenwriters #C20th
5/7
vimeo.com/511910316
George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture 2020
Born with an Oar in her Fists: Ann Scott-Moncrieff – A Talk by Jean Findlay The George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture has been an annual event since the Fellowship…
vimeo.com
January 11, 2026 at 4:39 PM
asls.org.uk
Ann Scott-Moncrieff died tragically young, though, & her books fell out of print. But in 2019 Scotland Street Press published a new edition of AUNTIE ROBBO, complete with the original illustrations by Christopher Brooker – read an extract here
#kidlit
4/7
booksfromscotland.com/2019/06/aunt...
Auntie Robbo - Books from Scotland
'‘I'd like to get out of this bog before I sink to my knees,’ said Merlissa Benck with some asperity.'
booksfromscotland.com
January 11, 2026 at 4:39 PM
asls.org.uk
AUNTIE ROBBO was, however, published in the USA. Even though (or because) it came with the warning that here was a book “without a shadow or suspicion of a moral”, it sold well & was eventually printed in the UK, first by Constable (1959) & then by Puffin (1962)
#kidlit
3/7
Book cover: Auntie Robbo, by Ann Scott-Moncrieff The cover is red with yellow lettering. The illustration shows a two-wheeled covered wagon being pulled by a horse, bouncing at speed along a rough road. At the front, an elderly lady with a tartan scarf leans out confidently to pull a small boy on board. Two children look out of the back of the wagon in excitement and alarm, as various buckets fly off behind them.
January 11, 2026 at 4:39 PM
asls.org.uk
“I mean they were mostly fighting in places that didn’t belong to them, weren’t they?”

The essential elements of English history are neatly summarised in AUNTIE ROBBO, Ann Scott-Moncrieff’s children’s novel that was rejected as being “too Scottish” by London publishers in 1941…
#kidlit
2/7
Merlissa Benck’s expression had become hard and eager; she was like a hound picking up an interesting scent; she panted for breath on the steep, windy hillside… Hector led the way up the path. ‘But what about … Hector, wait for me … What about other subjects?’ ‘Oh, Auntie Robbo knows all about them. Sometimes we do sums. We keep account books, and history – lots of history; then afterwards we ride over the battlefields and go and look at the castles where the murders were done.’ Seeing Merlissa Benck’s shocked expression, Hector explained seriously. ‘Scottish history has a great many murders, you know.’ ‘I dare say,’ said Merlissa Benck shortly. ‘But I should have thought British history would have been more suitable for a boy of your age, indispensable in my opinion. England’s story is a very great and noble one.’ ‘Yes,’ said Hector. ‘But then we couldn’t ride to the battlefields, could we? I mean they were mostly fighting in places that didn’t belong to them, weren’t they?’
January 11, 2026 at 4:39 PM
asls.org.uk
“…one of the major Scottish magazines of its time… Glen’s winning formula was to opt for special issues and themes, promoting young but promising writers but also putting equal value on a culture of criticism”

—Richie McCaffery on Duncan Glen & AKROS
3/3
campuspress.stir.ac.uk/scotmagsnet/...
Duncan Glen and Akros
Richie McCaffery introduces a key editor and poetry magazine of the 1960s-80s.
campuspress.stir.ac.uk
January 11, 2026 at 3:03 PM
asls.org.uk
I sit in my moulded black chair
near to Matisse’s ‘Draped Nude’ (1936).

Sometimes someane touches a canvas
and I staun up, which is usually enough…

—Duncan Glen,“Twa Warlds”
in The Edinburgh Book of 20th-Century Scottish Poetry (2005)
#poem #poetry
2/3
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edi...
Twa Warlds Duncan Glen I sit in my moulded black chair near to Matisse’s ‘Draped Nude’ (1936). Sometimes someane touches a canvas and I staun up, which is usually enough. I’m no a man o unnecessary words. Sometimes I adjust the thermostat. Sometimes I tak a daunder roond the gallery and if it’s empty staun by my favourite wark. It’s Henri Matisse’s ‘Draped Nude’ by the door. Next to it is his ‘The Inattentive Reader’ (1919) bequeathed by M. Shearman through the Contemporary Art Society 1940. No. 5141. I’m especially fond o its frame wi decoratit gilt in twa layers gien a wee sunken ledge at the tap atween its back and front. There I keep my ball-point pen.
January 11, 2026 at 3:03 PM
asls.org.uk
Great to hear that, thanks!
January 11, 2026 at 2:04 PM
asls.org.uk
… where Loch-lomondian liquids undulize …
January 10, 2026 at 3:59 PM
asls.org.uk
Tom Leonard talks about writing the biography PLACES OF THE MIND (Cape, 1993), on the life & work of James “B.V.” Thomson (Tom’s ability to quote large chunks of “The City of Dreadful Night” by heart isn’t the cheeriest of party pieces, but there you go)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYq5...
Writing Places of the Mind (1993) a biography of James Thomson (B.V.)
YouTube video by nielsen man
www.youtube.com
January 10, 2026 at 3:52 PM
asls.org.uk
James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – is best-known today for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT. He influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of #Modernism
psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-...
The City of Dreadful Night
James Thomson was a Scottish-born poet, atheist and anarchist. He struggled with depression, insomnia and alcohol-abuse throughout his short life and his work frequently reflected the bleakness and…
psychogeographicreview.com
January 10, 2026 at 3:52 PM
asls.org.uk
Fergusson’s poem is basically just this
youtu.be/hOSYiT2iG08?...
C is for Contrafibularity | Blackadder The Third | BBC Comedy Greats
YouTube video by BBC Comedy Greats
youtu.be
January 10, 2026 at 3:34 PM