Literary Scotland

46The WritersLavinia Derwent(1909–89), author of Greyfriars Bobby,children’s writer and creator, in the 1920sof the immortal Tammy Troot who firstuttered the words, ‘The world canny be a’ badif I’m still in it!’ 40Gavin Douglas(c.1476–1522), poet, translator of Virgil andchurchman, first author to insist on the useof the term Scots to designate his languageas distinct and of equal validity alongsideGaelic, English, Latin and French.23 37 40Arthur Conan Doyle(1859–1930), novelist, story-writer, creatorof Sherlock Holmes and of the scientistadventurerProfessor Challenger in The LostWorld (1912). 41William Drummond(1585–1649), deftly poised Englishlanguagepoet, friend of the playwright BenJonson, with whom he had a series of wittyconversations, later written out. 42S William Dunbar(c.1460–c.1520), major poet at the earlyRenaissance court of James IV, a priest anddevout churchman whose poems abound insatiric edge and linguistic energy. 34 35 37Douglas Dunn(b.1942), poet and formerly Professor atSt Andrews University, his books includeTerry Street (1969), Elegies (1985), Northlight(1988) and as editor, The Oxford Book ofScottish Short Stories (1995) and The FaberBook of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry(2006). 37Robert Fergusson(1750–1774), poet, Burns’s greatpredecessor, but unlike Burns, a great poet ofthe city, Edinburgh, Auld Reekie, and of themany, various kinds of men and women whowere its residents; also a coruscating satiristof enlightenment pretensions, especially ofHenry Mackenzie and Samuel Johnson.37 40Ian Hamilton Finlay(1925–2006), poet, artist, story-writer andgardener, whose sense of humour comesthrough in razory puns, verbal and visualgestures of deeply subversive implication. 45Ronald Frame(b.1939), novelist, writer of short stories,radio and TV dramatist. Stylish, literary,cosmopolitan in his settings, he exploresthe shifting sands of human personality inmany landscapes. Time in Carnbeg (2004),developed from an earlier radio series, is acollection of disturbing and cleverly craftedtales about lonely people in what looks verylike a Pitlochry resort. 25George MacDonald Fraser(1925–2008), novelist, memoirist, historian,scriptwriter, author of the Flashman seriesof novels and an account of Hollywoodhistorical films. 60Graham Fulton(b.1959), poet, satiric humour, sharp scornand irony abound in his poems, very muchin the Paisley tradition illuminated by TomLeonard in his anthology Radical Renfrew.46