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Book Synopsis

''No poet in Scotland now can take as his inspiration the folk impulse that created the ballads, the people''s songs, the legends of Mary Stuart and Prince Charlie,'' proposed Edwin Muir. Yet many of the poems in Mick Imlah''s new collection do take the most over-worn of Scottish myths as their apparent starting points, spanning the Wallace and the Bruce; the Bonnie Prince (pivotal Lost Leader of the title), Robert Burns and Walter Scott; whisky, Clydeside and football. Imlah''s approach to this folklore is brilliantly fresh, a modern, sardonic but strongly-felt rendering of Scotland: from AD 500, by way of a guided tour of Iona, to yesterday at a Dumfries bus depot. And, as the chronicle reaches the twentieth century, the poems turn to friends and family - childhood reminiscences, elegies and celebrations - influenced still by sporting and military fantasy, the charm of history and the power of anachronism.

The Lost Leader

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    A Paperback / softback by Mick Imlah

    £999.99

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      Book details

      Publisher Faber & Faber
      Published 1 May 2008
      ISBN-13 9780571243075
      978-0571243075
      ISBN-10 057124307X
      Also in:
      Poetry

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      ''No poet in Scotland now can take as his inspiration the folk impulse that created the ballads, the people''s songs, the legends of Mary Stuart and Prince Charlie,'' proposed Edwin Muir. Yet many of the poems in Mick Imlah''s new collection do take the most over-worn of Scottish myths as their apparent starting points, spanning the Wallace and the Bruce; the Bonnie Prince (pivotal Lost Leader of the title), Robert Burns and Walter Scott; whisky, Clydeside and football. Imlah''s approach to this folklore is brilliantly fresh, a modern, sardonic but strongly-felt rendering of Scotland: from AD 500, by way of a guided tour of Iona, to yesterday at a Dumfries bus depot. And, as the chronicle reaches the twentieth century, the poems turn to friends and family - childhood reminiscences, elegies and celebrations - influenced still by sporting and military fantasy, the charm of history and the power of anachronism.

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