The third and final volume of McDiarmid's previously uncollected prose
covers the decades from 1937 to 1978. This text includes: assessments of
the contemporary political and literary scene, from the Spanish Civil
War through MacDiarmid's call for an independent Republican Scotland;
articles on Lewis Grassic Gibbon, John Maclean, Vladimir Mayakovsky and
Norman MacCaig; tributes to James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Dylan Thomas, Cecil
Gray and Joseph Conrad; a criticism of Billy Graham; and a series of
pieces criticising those who MacDiarmid considered traitors in the
Scottish national movement. The book concludes with a selection of
retrospective and autumnal interviews, as the author looks back over his
literary, political, and personal career. Glen Murray also provides
details about MacDiamid's publications and commentary. The collection is
the tenth volume to be published as part of Carcanet's MacDiarmid 2000
programme.