FAIR HELEN is my latest novel. It was a tough struggle/ a sair fecht but got there in the end. I'm pleased it is not dour or heavy, given the Scottish Reformation wasn't the jolliest of times. I realise now the central characters are young and so laugh and joke, fancy each other and seek adventures in this most unstable of times. It's had very nice reviews and like FAIR HELEN, was Short Listed for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction - which is fitting, given that Walter Scott of Branxholme and Buccleuch, a direct forbear of Walter Scott the writer, is one of the central protagonists of my previous FAIR HELEN.
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NEW NOVEL Out 4th August 2021!
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Here's my latest and perhaps last collection of poems, from Polygon A number of Orkney poems (they begin and end it), and some from a life-enhancing 12 weeks in New Zealand (including the extended sequence 'Settlers'). There's also a quartet of poems around Jimmy Stand, Scottish icon - the first concert I went to, aged 10, was him and his Band. The second, some seven years later, was the Incredible String Band. A very different occasion! Both are markers of our psyche and culture. And 'The Old Codgers', meeting with pals outside the Ubiquitous Chip, with a wee smile acknowledging the stage in life we are fortunate to have got as far as.
For more details, see Forthcoming.
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OTHER NEWS
CD 'CLEAN BY RAIN'!
For a long time I've wanted to do something like this. Re-meeting the legendary Eric Plectrum (aka Brian Michie), former Fate & ferret guitarist, in the course of writing You Know What, we hatched the idea of combining a bunch of my poems with the instrumental music he had recorded some time ago.
We put this together at the CaVa Studios in Glasgow, with the generous and adept support of Brian Young. We got in another old pal, Allan Tall, to add flute to the three tracks. The mixing and adapting sessions were a revelation. I added a couple of extra tracks, taken from a very good recording made live at the Queens Hall, with Fiona Hunter (vocal, cello) and Mike Vass (vocal, tenor guitar).
Overall, it's not quite like anything. The aim was to have the spoken word up front, but not at the expense of fading down the music. We want them to co-exist, but in relation to each other. The music isn't backing for the poems, and the poems weren't written to the music - but they were recorded live to the instrumental playback, and so inevitably the voice responds to it.
I will sell it after readings. Also at a few sympathetic music and book shops. And the CD is available on Amazon, iTunes, also for streaming and download.
I
OTHER NEWS
CD 'CLEAN BY RAIN'!
For a long time I've wanted to do something like this. Re-meeting the legendary Eric Plectrum (aka Brian Michie), former Fate & ferret guitarist, in the course of writing You Know What, we hatched the idea of combining a bunch of my poems with the instrumental music he had recorded some time ago.
We put this together at the CaVa Studios in Glasgow, with the generous and adept support of Brian Young. We got in another old pal, Allan Tall, to add flute to the three tracks. The mixing and adapting sessions were a revelation. I added a couple of extra tracks, taken from a very good recording made live at the Queens Hall, with Fiona Hunter (vocal, cello) and Mike Vass (vocal, tenor guitar).
Overall, it's not quite like anything. The aim was to have the spoken word up front, but not at the expense of fading down the music. We want them to co-exist, but in relation to each other. The music isn't backing for the poems, and the poems weren't written to the music - but they were recorded live to the instrumental playback, and so inevitably the voice responds to it.
I will sell it after readings. Also at a few sympathetic music and book shops. And the CD is available on Amazon, iTunes, also for streaming and download.
I
GETTING HIGHER: The Complete Mountain Poems
Published by Birlinn, and launching in April 2011, 'Getting Higher' is a complete collection of Andrew Greig's mountain poems, and also includes outtakes, commentary, facsimile notes and marginalia, plus sketches and illustrations from James Hutcheson. An outstandingly elegant and varied production. For more information and images relating to the book, click HERE.
NB From May 12th, this will be available as a ebook (!) via Waterstones or Amazon or the LoveReading site!
NB From May 12th, this will be available as a ebook (!) via Waterstones or Amazon or the LoveReading site!
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Andrew thanks you for coming by to look at his home on the web, and he hopes you enjoy your stay.
THE SOUND OF THE WORDS
Recordings of 26 poems are on the National Poetry Archives, Some can listened to for free, and they are all on the CD reviewed below by the Observer:Books
AUDIO BOOK
Reading From His Poems
Andrew Greig
POETRYARCHIVE.ORG £12.99. 41MINS 26 POEMS
Greig is "hooked by the heart" to
Scotland - to "the big sky and its
changes" of Orkney; the old fishermen
of Anstruther with "eyebrows like grey
spray"; Stronsay, where the only sound is
"the world turning" - and to his mentor,
Norman MacCaig, as shown in "Norman's
Goodnight". Another theme is climbing in
the Himalayas, where he feels intensely
alive with a new awareness of "everything
we cannot see". Greig's mellifluous
chiming and his gentle voice highlight the
tenderness and vulnerability that infuse
these poems. Rachel Redford
LISTEN TO ANDREW READING HIS POETRY AT THE NATIONAL POETRY ARCHIVE
