Jane McKie Awarded the 2011 Edwin Morgan Poetry Prize

Polygon is absolutely delighted to announce that Jane McKie has won the 2011 Edwin Morgan Poetry Prize for her poem Leper Window, St Mary the Virgin.

Jane McKie

Exactly one year on from the sad death of Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s first Makar or Poet Laureate, Jane was announced as the winner at a special event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Her poem was chosen from 1200 entries. The prize - £5000 – is one of the largest of its kind and is sponsored by Strathclyde University.

Judge Vicki Feaver said of Jane’s poem, "Each stanza leads the reader a little further on a vivid sensual and historical journey from a world where leprosy is no longer a scourge to a world where its sufferers went on pilgrimages in search of healing. It's a poem about touch - one of the most difficult senses to write about. The untouchable lepers, the God who 'did not touch', and the touch of the lepers on the ledge of the church window 'the lip of sandstone ... purled (wonderful word!) with fissures'.

To read Jane’s winning poem - Leper Window, St Mary the Virgin – and the other shortlisted poems go to edwinmorganpoetrycompetition.co.uk/shortlisted-poems. Jane's collection of poems When the Sun Turns Green is available from Polygon.

“MRS THATCHER IS A LIAR … A CHEAT … A CROOK,” - TAM DALYELL

Published today is the autobiography of one of the most colourful, most outspoken and one of the most deeply principled MPs. His career of 43 years saw him be the thorn in the side of several Prime Ministers, even i fhe never got a front bench political career. But Tam Dalyell's name was rarely out of the headlines.

An outspoken critic of both Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, his vehement criticism of the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falklands conflict, the Gulf War of 1990 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he has also been a leading figure in the attempt to uncover the truth about the Lockerbie bombing. His memoir, based on personal papers as well as official documents – many of them only recently declassified – looks back over a lifetime of dedicated service as MP for West Lothian and Linlithgow and covers his family connections to the area for almost 400 years.

Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch of The Binns, 11th Baronet – better known as Tam Dalyell – was born in Edinburgh in 1932 and inherited the Baronetcy of the Binns via his mother in 1972. Educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Eton College, he did his National Service with the Royal Scots Greys from 1950 to 1952 as an ordinary trooper having failed his officer training. He studied History and Economics at King's College, Cambridge, where he was Chairman of the Conservative Association. Following teacher training at Moray House College in Edinburgh, Tam taught at a non-selective school and a ship school. He joined the Labour Party in 1956 after the Suez Crisis and became an MP in 1962, defeating William Wolfe of the Scottish National Party. Tam was an MP in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow. He became Father of the House after the 2001 General Election, when Sir Edward Heath retired, and was a Member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1979 and a member of the Labour National Executive from 1986 to 1987 for the Campaign group. In 2003 Tam was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh.


The Importance of Being Awkward: The Autobiography of Tam Dalyell is published today, 17th August, £25 hbk. Tam will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this evening.

Getting slightly excited ... Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011 starts this Saturday!

The Edinburgh International Book Festival is the largest in the world. In 2010 the stats stacked up to 778 events, 200,000 visitors, 870 authors from 49 countries - 165 of them Scottish – with 341 sold out events and 118 free events.

2011 promises to be even bigger, even better – possibly wetter, but we don’t care! Both Birlinn and Polygon will be cheering on their authors at this year’s festival, and we can promise something for everyone. From Precious Ramotswe’s first case to true tales of derring do in the Second World War. Victorian crime fighters to naughty little boys. Growing up foreign to the greatest discoveries in astronomy. Makars and Method Actors.

Self-contained in a small but perfectly formed village of white tents in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is a wonderful place to be. Why not join us?


Charlotte Square, in the sunshine!



Edinburgh International Book Festival, 2011 - Part 2, Birlinn ...

The theme of EIBF 2011 is revolution, and if you’re holding out for a hero we can help. In the 1930s rich young men tended to buy islands as weekend getaways. Not so John Lorne Campbell who bought Canna to try and preserve its Gaelic traditions before handing it to the National Trust for Scotland. Ray Perman’s biography – The Man Who Gave Away His Island, the only one on John Lorne Campbell – tells of his dreams and struggles. The rights and wrongs of land ownership is a subject close the heart of Andy Wightman whose superb The Poor Had No Lawyers explores how millions of acres of common land ended in the hands of a chosen few.


Robin Harper

Politicians are not always universally considered heroes, but as the first Green parliamentarian Robin Harper has certainly cleared a path for others to follow, as he describes in his Technicolor autobiography Dear Mr Harper. Tam Dalyell is a hero to some, to others ... well, probably best not to ask. Let’s just say the title of his much-anticipated autobiography The Importance of Being Awkward says it all. Everyone who fought for freedom in World War II was a hero, but Allan Burnett chooses just a few true tales of heroism in his latest book for children. And a hero for our time if there ever was one is Bob Servant, the hilarious alter ego of Neil Forsyth, who takes on email spammers at their own game.

But sometimes it is the quiet things that make the biggest changes. Mairi Hedderwick’s charming Peedie Peebles will enchant and distract young readers with his exploits. And inside every one of us is a silent revolution, our DNA. Alistair Moffat and Jim Wilson use cutting edge technology to trace the history of the Scots in The Scots: A Genetic Journey. And it’s changing a few beliefs on where they came from!

So make sure you get in quick on 26th June to buy your tickets, and we’ll see you in Charlotte Square – hopefully in the sunshine!

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2011, Part 1 ...

It’s that time of year again! The 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival programme has been launched and we’re very excited. Here are the Polygon highlights of the programme …

There is a fantastic range of fiction on offer including Kevin MacNeil, whose A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde takes it’s setting and a lot of its inspiration from Edinburgh itself. The Edinburgh of the nineteenth century is the backdrop for David Ashton’s fantastic Inspector McLevy Mysteries, star of a BBC Radio 4 series and now of three brilliant books. But if you fancy ranging further afield, Carlos Alba’s moving novel The Songs of Manolo Escobar chronicles the hardships of growing up Spanish in Glasgow. And you can jump in space and time with Sam Meekings to China over two thousands years in the magical The Book of Crows, or join Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei in Stuart Clark’s magnificent debut novel The Sky’s Dark Labyrinth.

Poets are often thought of as having their heads in the clouds but Andrew Greig really has as the ‘laureate of climbing’ whose mountain poems are collected in Getting Higher. And you can’t get much more down to earth than Scotland’s own Makar Liz Lochhead, a Polygon perennial favourite. Talking of ‘great folk’ (see what we did there?), Martin Strong author of The Great Folk Discography will be sharing his encyclopaedic knowledge of the musical genre.

And it wouldn’t be an Edinburgh International Book Festival without Alexander McCall Smith. He’ll be opening the front door on the latest goings on at 44 Scotland Street with Bertie Sings the Blues as well as leaping back in time and across continents to reveal Precious Ramotswe’s very first detective case in Precious and the Monkeys – a treat for all ages.

Stay tuned for the view of EIBF 2011 from the Birlinn side …