- Recollections of childhood in a southern Scottish mining village
- One of the most important Scots language publications of the last 20 years
- Part of a poetry bonanza at Wigtown Book Festival 2021
At the age of 86 Josie Neill, described as one of Scotland’s “most neglected” poets, will finally see her first full collection of work published – in a book entitled There’s Ma Mammy Wavin’.
Josie has lived in Dumfries for many years, but lots of the poems in the book recall her childhood in the Ayrshire village of Muirkirk.
Mostly writing in Scots she recalls people and events from the 1940s and 50s, including wartime refugees arriving and local miners, skin deeply ingrained with coal dust, heading home to wash and eat after shifts down the pit.
She said: “It was a wee, isolated village among the hills. And it was a very close knit small community. I loved it. I loved it as a child, as a young person growing up. I loved the language, it was an inspiring kind of language. And I loved the people – there was a true humanity.
“Some of what I’ve written about were the everyday things, like the miners heading home – and the way their handsomeness showed, even through all the coal dust. And then there were the unusual things like the refugees arriving, coming there from Glasgow.”
There’s Ma Mammy Wavin’ is the fourth publication from a new imprint called Drunk Muse Press which has been set up by a group of writers including the well-known Dumfries and Galloway poet Hugh McMillan.
It will be launched on Sunday, 26 September at Wigtown Book Festival and Josie hopes to be present and to read some of her work if her health allows.
Hugh said: “Josie is one of the most neglected poets in Scotland and I’m really pleased that a full collection of her poetry is being published at long last.
“She’s a highly respected figure and writes in a rich, beautiful and vibrant Scots. I think she has been overlooked for several reasons – one is that she was a woman writing in a very male dominated world, writing mostly in Scots at a time when it was very marginalised and also because she was living in Dumfries and Galloway.
“But I see this as one of the most important publications in Scots of the last 20 years.”
According to Hugh, she was held in high esteem by the likes of Willie Neill. Indeed, she is the only woman to be seen in a line-up of poets photographed in c1992 for Willie Neill’s 70th birthday – where she is seen in the company of Tom Pow, Hugh McMillan, Derick Thomson, Norman MacCaig and Iain Crichton Smith.
This year’s festival is a bumper one for poetry and includes the presentation of the awards for the annual Wigtown Poetry Prize.
There will also be an event called Dead Guid Scots on 24 September by Roncadora Press which will see the unveiling of a highly unusual exhibition – a model church and graveyard designed by Hugh Bryden in which every headstone carries a poetic memorial to a deceased Scot. A pamphlet designed by Bryden and edited by Hugh McMillan and featuring 35 of Scotland’s finest poets will also be launched at the event.
Hugh McMillan will be having his own event at the festival on 27 September, which will involve the launch of a new collection of Scots poetry called Whit If?, by Luath Press, which is an often humorous look at a host of historical micht-hae-beens.
For example, what if King Alexander III had access to Twitter on that fateful day when he and his horse plunged over a cliff – and plunged Scotland into the Wars of Independence? Or what if singer songwriter Jacques Brel had joined The Corries?
- For more see www.wigtownbookfestival.com.
- Picture by Colin Hattersley.
– Ends –
Notes
- Wigtown Book Festival has a £25,000 appeal to help secure its future. Donations can be made here https://wigtownbookfestival.ticketsolve.com/products/donation.
- This year’s event is being supported by a variety of funders including DG Unlimited (as part of its Together Again season), Dumfries and Galloway Council and EventScotland.
About the poetry books and pamphlets
There’s Ma Mammy Wavin’ (Drunk Muse Press)
Comprising poems in Scots and English painstakingly assembled from a lifetime’s recording and publishing, this work reveals Josie at her playful and moving best, evoking a rural lifestyle and language that has largely disappeared. She writes in beautiful, elegant, rooted language. Josie’s poetry often evokes a bygone way of life, and the folk who once inhabited it in a way that isn’t mawkish, but engages, elevates and pierces us. You’ll not read or hear better Scots poetry anywhere.
Whit If? (Luath)
Hugh McMillan’s first collection in Scots asks questions about Scottish history like ‘Whit If Alexander III haed twitter?’, ‘Whit If John Knox haed fawen in luve wi Mary Queen o Scots’ and ‘Whit if Jacques Brel haed jynt the Corries’. Humour is guaranteed but many educational gems are dug up along the way by this poet and long time student of Scotland’s strange and undervalued history.
“One of our ablest and most entertaining writers – pure and simple” Alistair Finlay
Haphazardly in the Starless Night (Luath)
Taking in the years of the Pandemic, McMillan’s new poetry collection takes us a trip through his life and imagination, his hopes, observations and dreams. It’s never less than an interesting journey. He is an accessible, humorous and tender writer. He is one of Scotland’s best.
“Poems that I think are special, at once local, personal and universal. Treat yourself.” Andrew Greig
For further information and interview requests contact Matthew Shelley on 07786 704299 or [email protected]
Wigtown Festival Company Ltd, 11 North Main Street, Wigtown, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, UK, DG8 9HN © 1999 – 2018. Wigtown Festival Company Ltd is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. Scottish Charity No. SCO37984