Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve, 1892-1978), one of the major poets of the twentieth century, is the greatest Scottish poet of any century. He drew on the literary and vernacular traditions of Scottish culture, revitalising the Scots language to create a literature that is modern, engaged and experimental, both nationalist and international in its range.

This selection explores the diversity of MacDiarmid's work, from delicate lyrics derived from the Scots ballad tradition to fierce polemic. It includes the whole of his greatest work, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926), and his philosophical poem 'On a Raised Beach', with a full glossary of its technical terms. Scots words have been glossed at the foot of each page, and the collection includes an illuminating memoir by Hugh MacDiarmid's son, Michael Grieve.