Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Best known for his A Scots Quair trilogy, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the pen-name of James Leslie Mitchell, began his writing career at the Aberdeen Journal in 19 17. In 1929, at the age of 28, he launched his career as a novelist. Five years later he wrote Sunset Song, the first in his A Scots Quair trilogy. The work became a literary sensation, praised for its honest and fresh portrayal of the life, language and landscape of the North-East.

Growing up in rural Aberdeenshire, the young Leslie, as he was then known, escaped the drudgery of his family farm to lose himself in a world of books. Opening himself to new ideas, his own work would later reflect his socialist values and challenge stereotypical views of women’s role in society. His true genius came to the fore with the publication of Sunset Song in 1932. Set in the fictional village of ‘Kinraddie’, based on his native Mearns, the book evokes the community and the culture of his birthplace. In it he uniquely blends Doric, Scots and English, effectively inventing his own language which captures the rhythm of the voice of the North-East.