SCOTS AUTHORS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 99, 28 April 1937, Page 9

SCOTS AUTHORS

"LITERARY AWAKENING"

ADDRESS B%MR. J. A. IMORRIE

An interesting address on. modern Scots authors.was given at the monthly meeting . of;the St. Andrew Burns Club' lastvweek by Mr. J.-A. Norrie, the Chief. Librarian.. The president of the'cluil./Mr. J. G. MacKenzie, was in. the' chair,; and there was • a large attendance.' ■

Mr.> Norrie said that while at the beginning of the present century there were-;only half a dozen living Scots writers of note, of whom only three or four were writing of Scots themes, thfere' had been within the last few years about fifty living Scots writers of . some distinction, • nearly all of .whom have been writing about and living in Scotland and all of whom have been "Scotland-conscious." Whether this amounted to a literary,, renaissance could not-be known until another generation had grown up, but at least it constituted a literary awakening. Glasgow and not Edinburgh was the focus of this revival. The speaker dealt in particular with the atmosphere created by J. J. Bell, Neil Munro, John Buchan, the Glasgow Repertory Theatre, and the Scottish National Players. . • , .• ■ ''■■''•'. He then referred to the more famou3 of the ■ works . of-such :well-knowa ■modern Scots as George Blake, Linklater, Neil Gunn,- Gibbon, A. J. Cronin, J J. Bell, Sir James Barrie, Crockett, Cunninghame Graham, and lan Maclaren. Summaries of their lives and the reasons for their successes were in many "cases.given. . - . • . "Perhaps the most versatile of modern Scots writers is a man whose career has been the most varied, a member of an old Border, family," said Mr Norrie. "After a most distinguished career at Glasgow and Oxford Universities, John Buchan, now Lord Tweedsmuir, became -an English barrister, then in 1907 became a partner in-Thos.. Nelson and Sons, Ltd., publishers. During the war he was 'Times . correspondent, an intelligence officer on Haig's staff, "then Director of Information. His first serious work was his History of the Great War; then followed 'biographies, poems, essays, memoirs, and even a Parliamentary blue book, historical novels, and also a first-class 'thriller,' . 'The. 39 .Steps, written in three weeks during a wartime convalescence; He has a peculiar ability to make the' scenes of which he writes, while historically. accurate, very vivid and real, and'is one ol those Scotsmen who'after .proceeding to London discovered . that even the metropolis was" not'big enough to hold them. Now helis Governor of Canada. Mr. Norrie ; also ' dealt with the encouragement given to Scots writers, when young, by William Robertson Nicoll, editor; of the "British Weekly, and mentioned the help given to 3arrie, lan 'Maclaren, and Annie b. Swan in particular. During the evening songs were sung by Mrs. Crawford and Mr. Montgomery; recitations were given by Miss Montgomery; violin solos by Mr. J L. Steel,' and bagpipe selections by Mr.-A.- Barclay. Supper was served by \rhe president expressed the club's thanks to Mr. Burnett, of. Johnsonville, for the gift of a carved ' chairman's gavel. . .-