Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Born James Leslie Mitchell, Lewis Grassic Gibbon redefined Scottish literature in the 1930s with his visceral portrayal of rural life, social commentary, and pioneering use of Scots. Sunset Song is widely considered the most important Scottish novel of the 20th century.

Raised in a North-East farming family, Gibbon left school at the age of 16 to work as a journalist, first for the Aberdeen Journal and then the Scottish Farmer newspaper in Glasgow. Exposed to the slum living conditions of the poor in these cities, he became involved with left-wing politics and later wrote critically about Glasgow’s slums in Scottish Scene (1934).

In 1919, Gibbon joined the Royal Army Service Corps, serving across the Middle East before enlisting in the RAF as a clerk. By 1925 he had been posted back to England where he settled in Hertfordshire with his wife and two children. He began writing full time and published Calends of Cairo in 1931, a series of short stories inspired by his time overseas prefaced with letters of encouragement for his writing from H G Wells.

A year later, he published Sunset Song under a pen name so as to distinguish it from his other writing which ranged from science-fiction and historical novels to non-fiction accounts of explorers. The first book in the A Scots Quair trilogy, Sunset Song was unique; not only did it draw on his experience of growing up in north-east Scotland, but Gibbon’s use of local Scots was revolutionary and established a new tradition of Scottish writing.

Having published 18 books in six years and achieved widespread popularity in the UK and US, Gibbon died at the age of only 33, leaving numerous incomplete literary projects. Sunset Song has never been out of print and in 2016 was voted Scotland’s best loved novel.