Moray teacher Dr Bill Malcolm pens biography of Lewis Grassic Gibbon

He died aged just 33 but amongst Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novels is one that’s regularly voted Scotland’s favourite.

Over the years ‘Sunset Song’ has been made into a film and a BBC TV series, while amongst the book’s many fans is Nicola Sturgeon who wrote the foreword to a recent edition. Now Gibbon’s complex personality and short but eventful life has been laid bare in a newly-published biography written by Dr Bill Malcolm, a retired teacher from Moray.

Dr Malcolm, who was the longtime head of English at Keith Grammar, drew on more than four decades of dedicated research to complete what he describes as “a labour of love”.

He said: “It’s the first biography of Gibbon and I think it’s something he both needs and deserves.

“To my mind he’s the best Scottish novelist of his generation. He was a supreme talent. He was someone who managed to find success as a full-time writer despite being born into a dirt-poor crofting family.

“Lewis Grassic Gibbon was just becoming a really prominent figure when he died young. His books were popular not just in Scotland, but throughout Britain and America.”

Gibbon was born in Auchterless, about a dozen miles east of Huntly, on February 13, 1901.

Aged seven he moved with his family to Arbuthnott, but continued to grow up in rural poverty.

His upbringing helped colour his writing, with several of his books set firmly in the north east.

In addition, it helped form his strong political beliefs, as did the later rise of Adolf Hitler during the 1930s.

Gibbon became a leading light in the British section of the anti-fascist Revolutionary Writers of the World.

In addition he was also a noted figure in what came to be known as the Scottish Renaissance, a literary movement which included Whisky Galore writer Compton Mackenzie as well as Hugh MacDiarmid, the poet and founding member of the SNP.

Dr Malcolm, who lives in Aberlour, has written Gibbon’s biography – ‘History of a Revoluter’ – with the help of private papers belonging to the author’s family.

He said: “Like most things, such as clothes and music, his books tend to go in and out of fashion a little.

“At the moment, though, there seems to be an increase in interest, which is great to see. For instance, new translations have recently been published in French, Spanish as well as German.

“He’s now recognised again across the world as a writer of the very highest order.”

The publication launch was held this week at the Grassic Gibbon Centre. The centre is sited at Arbuthnott near Stonehaven and is open to the public seven days a week between May and October.

‘History of a Revoluter’ is available online through Amazon.