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… (Wilson’s) studies were made with skill and love for his subjects. Now Hamish MacDonald has brought together a selection in an attractive book…Times Literary Supplement
…a gorgeous new wee book which features stunning illustrations of bird life alongside Hamish’s poems…Janice Forsyth, presenter, The Afternoon Show BBC Radio Scotland
As a result of his travels across the North American continent in the eighteenth century, Scotsman Alexander Wilson pioneered the science of ornithology. With a biographical introduction by Paul Wilson from RSPB Scotland, this beautifully designed book merges the original bird paintings with new poems in Scots by Hamish MacDonald aboot burds.
ALEXANDER WILSON, a Radical Paisley weaver turned packman, and inspiration for ‘The Last of the Mohicans’, travelled thousands of miles by foot across the American continent illustrating and writing about its bird life. Wilson is the founding father of 'American Ornithology', while his illustrations and writing comprise an outstanding body of work. American Ornithology was published in nine volumes between 1808 and 1814.
HAMISH MACDONALD was the first skriver at the Scottish National Library in Edinburgh and the poems reflect his own lifelong love of birds. Scots is the medium throughout. As Alexander Wilson was not only a self-taught ornithologist, but also at one time a minor Scots poet and an orator who delivered his speeches in Scots verse, this makes Scots an apposite medium with which to explore these beautiful drawings.
… (Wilson’s) studies were made with skill and love for his subjects. Now Hamish MacDonald has brought together a selection in an attractive book…Times Literary Supplement
…a gorgeous new wee book which features stunning illustrations of bird life alongside Hamish’s poems…Janice Forsyth, presenter, The Afternoon Show BBC Radio Scotland
As a result of his travels across the North American continent in the eighteenth century, Scotsman Alexander Wilson pioneered the science of ornithology. With a biographical introduction by Paul Wilson from RSPB Scotland, this beautifully designed book merges the original bird paintings with new poems in Scots by Hamish MacDonald aboot burds.
ALEXANDER WILSON, a Radical Paisley weaver turned packman, and inspiration for ‘The Last of the Mohicans’, travelled thousands of miles by foot across the American continent illustrating and writing about its bird life. Wilson is the founding father of 'American Ornithology', while his illustrations and writing comprise an outstanding body of work. American Ornithology was published in nine volumes between 1808 and 1814.
HAMISH MACDONALD was the first skriver at the Scottish National Library in Edinburgh and the poems reflect his own lifelong love of birds. Scots is the medium throughout. As Alexander Wilson was not only a self-taught ornithologist, but also at one time a minor Scots poet and an orator who delivered his speeches in Scots verse, this makes Scots an apposite medium with which to explore these beautiful drawings.
‘ As well as Scots words adding colour and satisfyingly descriptive sounds to Hamish’s word portraits of his chosen birds, the entertaining and informative book is a great advert for Scots and its power for a younger generation.’
'Hamish MacDonald is yin o oor finest Scots writers. He has been scrievin and fechtin for the leid for a lang time.'
The crossbill is a bonny bird
An she sings wi a guid Scots tongue
Jip-jip-jip
A’ll gie ye gip
Gin ye meddle wi me nor ma young
