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Scotland's National Book Awards
Scotland's National Book Awards, formerly known as the Saltire Society Literary Awards, are made annually by the Saltire Society. First awarded in 1937, they are awarded for books by Scottish authors or about Scotland, and are awarded in several categories. History The first Saltire Society Book Award was given in 1937, the year after the Saltire Society was established. No awards were given after 1939 due to the Second World War, and the next award was made 1956. The History Book of the Year award was inaugurated in 1965. In 1982 sponsorship was obtained and since then the awards have been made annually. First books have been recognised since 1988, and in 1998 the award for Scottish Research Book of the Year was established. Until around 2021, the awards were known as the Saltire Society Literary Awards, subtitled Scotland's National Book Awards, but then took on the subtitle as the name covering all of the literary awards that the society awards: Scotland's National Book Award ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saltire Society
The Saltire Society is a membership organisation which aims to promote the understanding of the culture and heritage of Scotland. Founded in 1936, the society was "set up to promote and celebrate the uniqueness of Scottish culture and Scotland’s heritage, and to reclaim Scotland’s place as a distinct contributor to European and international culture." The society organises lectures and publishes pamphlets, and presents a series of awards in the fields of art, architecture, literature and history. The society is based in Edinburgh, with branches in Aberdeen, Dumfries, Glasgow, Helensburgh, the Highlands, Kirriemuir and New York City. The current president is the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews, Sally Mapstone. History The society was founded on 22 April 1936 in Glasgow, conceived by Andrew Dewar Gibb and George Malcolm Thomson. Subscription for a year cost five shillings. By the early 1950s the society had almost 2000 members. In 1954 they lau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derick Thomson
Derick Smith Thomson (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ruaraidh MacThòmais''; 5 August 1921, Stornoway – 21 March 2012, Glasgow) was a Scottish poet, publisher, lexicographer, academic and writer. He was originally from Lewis, but spent much of his life in Glasgow, where he was Professor of Celtic at the University of Glasgow from 1963 to 1991. He is best known for setting up the publishing house Gairm, along with its magazine, which was the longest-running periodical ever to be written entirely in Gaelic, running for over fifty years under his editorship. Gairm has since ceased, and was replaced by '' Gath'' and then STEALL. He was an Honorary President of the Scottish Poetry Library, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British Academy. In June 2007, he received an honorary degree from Glasgow University. Life Thomson was originally from Upper Bayble (''Pabail Uarach'') on Lewis, the same village that produced two other Gaelic writers of note, Iain Crichton Smith an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James A
James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (other), various kings named James * Saint James (other) * James (musician) * James, brother of Jesus Places Canada * James Bay, a large body of water * James, Ontario United Kingdom * James College, York, James College, a college of the University of York United States * James, Georgia, an unincorporated community * James, Iowa, an unincorporated community * James City, North Carolina * James City County, Virginia ** James City (Virginia Company) ** James City Shire * James City, Pennsylvania * St. James City, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * James (2005 film), ''James'' (2005 film), a Bollywood film * James (2008 film), ''James'' (2008 film), an Irish short film * James (2022 film), ''James'' (2022 film), an Indian Kannada ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iain Crichton Smith
Iain Crichton Smith, (Gaelic: ''Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn''; 1 January 1928 – 15 October 1998) was a Scottish poet and novelist, who wrote in both English and Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow, but moved to the Isle of Lewis at the age of two, where he and his two brothers were brought up by their widowed mother in the small crofting town of Bayble, which also produced Derick Thomson. Educated at the University of Aberdeen, Crichton Smith took a degree in English, and after serving in the National Service Army Education Corps, went on to become a teacher. He taught in Clydebank, Dumbarton and Oban from 1952, retiring to become a full-time writer in 1977, although he already had many novels and poems published . Overview of work Crichton Smith was brought up in a Gaelic-speaking community, learning English as a second language once he attended school. Friend and poet Edwin Morgan notes that unlike his contemporaries (such as Sorley Maclean and Derick Thomson), Crichton Smith w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duncan Macmillan (art Historian)
Duncan Macmillan, FRSA, FRSE, HRSA, is a Scottish art historian, art critic, and writer. Biography He is the elder son of William Miller Macmillan. Born in 1939, and educated at Gordonstoun School, he obtained his MA degree at the University of St Andrews, his Academic Diploma at the University of London, and his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He is an honorary graduate of the University of Dundee. Macmillan is Professor Emeritus of the History of Scottish Art at the University of Edinburgh, and a former Curator of the Talbot Rice Gallery. Between 2008 and 2012 he was curator of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is also art critic for The Scotsman. Works His works include ''Painting in Scotland: the Golden Age'' (Oxford 1986), and ''Scottish Art 1460-1990'' (Edinburgh 2000), According to Cairns Craig, the book views Scottish art as emanating from public art practices of the Protestant Reformation. The Times Literary Supplement considered that Macmillan was excellent on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allan Massie
Allan Johnstone Massie (born 16 October 1938) is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Selkirk. Early life Born in Singapore, where his father was a rubber planter for Sime Darby, Massie spent his childhood in Aberdeenshire. He was educated at Drumtochty Castle preparatory school and Glenalmond College in Perthshire before going on to attend Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read history. Career Journalist Massie is a journalist and critic of fiction, writing regular columns for ''The Scotsman'', ''The Sunday Times'' (Scotland) and the Scottish ''Daily Mail''. He has been ''The Scotsman's'' chief fiction reviewer for a quarter of a century and also regularly writes about rugby union and cricket for that paper. He has previously been a columnist for ''The Daily Telegraph'', the ''Glasgow Herald,'' and was the Sunday Stand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Nairn
Tom Nairn (born 2 June 1932) is a Scottish political theorist and academic. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University. He is known as an essayist and a supporter of Scottish independence. Life Nairn was born on 2 June 1932 in Freuchie, Fife, the son of a school headmaster He attended Dunfermline High School and the Edinburgh College of Art before graduating from the University of Edinburgh with an MA in Philosophy in 1956. he was awarded a British Council scholarship in 1957 to the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, staying some time and becoming fluent in Italian. During the 1960s he studied in Dijon, worked in warehouses as a nightwatchman, and taught at various institutions including the University of Birmingham (1965-6). He came to national prominence as a lecturer at Hornsey College of Art during 1968, involved in a student occupation. The occupation offered a major critique of the education sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neal Ascherson
Charles Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer. He has been described by Radio Prague as "one of Britain's leading experts on central and eastern Europe". Ascherson is the author of several books on the history of Poland and Ukraine. His work has appeared in ''The Guardian'' and ''The New York Review of Books''. Background Ascherson was born in Edinburgh on 5 October 1932, son of a Naval officer of Jewish ancestry and a mother from a London family of Scottish descent; his elder half-sister (by his father's first marriage) was the artist Pamela Ascherson. He was awarded a scholarship to Eton. Before going to university, he did his National Service as an officer in the Royal Marines, serving from July 1951 to September 1952, and seeing combat in Malaya. He then attended King's College, Cambridge, where he read history. The marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm was his tutor at Cambridge and described Ascherson as "perhaps the most brilliant stude ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (née Camberg; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an engineer, and Sarah Elizabeth Maud (née Uezzell). Her father was Jewish, born in Edinburgh of Lithuanian immigrant parents, and her English mother had been raised Anglican. She was educated at James Gillespie's School for Girls (1923–35), where she received some education in the Presbyterian faith. In 1934–35 she took a course in "commercial correspondence and précis writing" at Heriot-Watt College. She taught English for a brief time, and then worked as a secretary in a department store. In 1937 she became engaged to Sidney Oswald Spark, thirteen years her senior, whom she had met in Edinburgh. In August of that year, she followed him out to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and they were married on 3 September 1937 in Salisbury. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuart Hood
Stuart Clink Hood (17 December 1915 – 31 January 2011) was a Scottish novelist, translator and a former British television producer and Controller of BBC Television. Life Hood was born in Edzell, Angus, Scotland. His father was an infant school headmaster, firstly in Edzell and then in Montrose. After school Hood attended the University of Edinburgh between 1934 and 1938. During the Second World War Hood served in the British Army as an Intelligence Officer. He spent a year in Italy as a prisoner of war before joining the partisans. His memoir of this period, ''Pebbles from my Skull'', was published in 1963; a revised version appeared in 1985. It is an unromantic account of the partisans in Italy and their relationship to the official allied forces. From 1961 until 1963, Hood was the Controller of the BBC Television Service. As Controller, he played a key role in changing the BBC's reputation from being a producer of stodgy, didactic programming in the tradition of Lor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman MacCaig
Norman Alexander MacCaig DLitt (14 November 1910 – 23 January 1996) was a Scottish poet and teacher. His poetry, in modern English, is known for its humour, simplicity of language and great popularity. Life Norman Alexander MacCaig was born at 15 East London Street, Edinburgh, to Robert McCaig (1880–1950?), a chemist from Dumfriesshire, and Joan née MacLeod (1879–1959), from Scalpay in the Outer Hebrides. He was their fourth child and only son. He attended the Royal High School and in 1928 went to the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1932 with a degree in classics. He divided his time, for the rest of his life, between his native city and Assynt in the Scottish Highlands. During the Second World War MacCaig registered as a conscientious objector, a move that many at the time criticised. Douglas Dunn has suggested that MacCaig's career later suffered as a result of his outspoken pacifism, although there is no evidence of this. For the early part of his w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
