Originally published to mark the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth, this biography paints a picture of a man fighting to maintain a sly sense of integrity in the face of overwhelming pressures.

Engaging with Zoroastrian, Chinese and Greek as well as with Scottish antecedents, Crawford's poems have an arresting range and a lyrical energy. Ranging from Jerusalem to Iona, New York City to Shetland, this is a collection of international range that continually zeroes in on the particular - and the particularly Scottish.

Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country claimed that “Australia was one of the first nations to find part of the meaning of life in the purchase of consumer goods.” Significantly, similar views had been expressed in the late 18th century, where everyday life in the antipodean outpost of Empire was regarded as being pecuniary and acquisitive in nature. While references to Australia as a “consumer society” continue to be made, the question of how Australia came to be so has attracted less attention. The chapters in Consumer Australia actively redress this omission by examining the ways in...

'For intellectual range, emotional depth, and lexical shimmer, Crawford is unsurpassed among recent Scottish poets' Sunday Herald Writing out of older Scottish traditions that are ludic, intellectually deft and linguistically complex, Robert Crawford also stands with fellow poets, Liz Lochhead, Douglas Dunn and Simon Armitage as a contemporary master. Nimbly traversing the globe, Old World is a generous, playful collection featuring the traditional forms of haiku and riddle, versions of Mexican, Chinese, Old English and Greek poems, a tincture of Scots work, and many pieces that present an...