‘A brilliant novelist’ – Lewis Grassic Gibbon
‘Modern Scottish fiction reaches its highest peak in the novels of Neil M. Gunn . . . he transcends regionalism and acquires universality.’ – The Scotsman
‘an epic recreation of the Highland Clearances’ – Scots Magazine
Tapping into the essence of Gaelic experience, Butcher’s Broom is the story of a community threatened with eviction, in order to make way for sheep. At the centre of the novel is the mysterious Dark Mairi, who embodies the spirit of ancient Highland culture. The sense of Gaelic community and tradition is captured, while the novel’s characters exemplify what is most vital and lasting in mankind. This is among the most moving of Gunn’s works and establishes the transcendent spirituality that would be so dominant in his later work.
Neil Miller Gunn is recognised as one of the most important writers to emerge in 20th century British literature, and a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. He held a lifelong commitment to the ideals of Scottish nationalism and socialism, and as a prolific critic, dramatist and author of over twenty novels he and Lewis Grassic Gibbon were arguably the most influential Scottish writers of the early 20th century.
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