In May this year a landmark anthology of modern poetry in Scots was compiled and published by J Derrick McClure. Derrick, who for many years was a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, is well known in the Scots community as a Scots language advocate and researcher. His latest contribution to our knowledge of the language is this splendid volume called ‘A Kist o Skinklan Things’ which is annual volume number 46 from the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.

This work brings together the many poets and writers of the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century in one handy volume. It describes the rise of Scots in that period as a language that once more became the vehicle for discussing social and political ideas of the age, including national identity. McClure also explores the changing register and status of the language. Among the writers whose work appears are Lewis Spence, Helen Cruickshank, Bessie MacArthur, Hugh MacDiarmid, William Soutar, Robert McLellan, Robert Garioch, TS Law, William Neill and David Purves, and any others not so well known.

A Kist o Skinklan Things is 256pp (ISBN 9781906841294) and priced at £14.95. For more information, or to purchase a copy, please contact Duncan Jones at the ASLS by e-mail office@asls.org.uk .