Hamish Henderson

Books from Scotland Biography of the Year 2007

’A heroic account...the second volume, going by the first cannot arrive too soon.’ - The Scotsman

'Neat’s clear, eloquent style is illuminated with gems unearthed from Henderson’s lifetime of unclassified scrapbooks, diaries, songs, poems and newspaper clippings...Folklorists everywhere will eagerly anticipate the second volume.' - Margaret Bennett, English Dance and Song

’Represents a major contribution to the cultural history of Scotland.’ - Scottish Left Review

Read an extract . . .

Hamish Henderson lived one of the great lives of twentieth-century Scotland, a dramatic life of epic European scale, a life of major artistic, political and spiritual achievement. He was well-known as a songwriter, a poet and a pioneer in the field of Scottish folksong. Henderson was also a highly original translator of poetry – from Gaelic, French, German, Latin and Greek – much of it into Scots. He also translated the work of the Italian socialist Antonio Gramsci, whose Prison Letters he published in English in 1974.

Born in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, in 1919, Hamish Henderson spent his early years in Glenshee before moving to Ireland and then Devon. He won a scholarship to Dulwich College and went on to study Modern Languages at Cambridge. During the Second World War he served in North Africa and Italy with the 51st Highland Division. He died in March 2002. This book, a major study of this charismatic and fascinating man, presents both a detailed biography and an assessment of his place in the context of the twentieth century. It is based on first-hand interviews with those who knew Henderson both personally and professionally as well as detailed research of published and unpublished sources.

Timothy Neat is a writer, film-maker, art historian and countryman. His book The Summer Walkers was awarded the Jena Michaelis Ratcliffe Folklore Award in 1996. He lives in Fife.