A BOOK celebrating one of Scotland’s most distinguished trilingual poets is to be launched this week.
William ‘Willie’ Neill was regarded as one of the few poets in history who could write fluently in Scots, Gaelic and English.
The new book of poems, essays and memories of the author - entitled The Leaves of the Years - written by poets Hugh McMillan and Stuart Paterson, will be officially launched at the Big Lit Festival in Dumfries and Galloway on July 21.
Speaking to the Dumfries and Galloway Standard, Paterson said it had been a pleasure putting the book together.
He said: “It’s been a real honour and joy compiling and editing with Hugh this hugely important, unique book commemorating the centenary year of the birth of Willie Neill, one of Scotland’s most important and unique writers.
“It’s also a book about someone whom many writers and artists and aye, teaching colleagues and pupils, were very lucky to know and be supported by over a long period.”
In an interview with the BBC, McMillan said there were many reasons why Neill deserved to be memorialised: "He is unique in being a skilled trilingual poet.
"He's possibly the only writer - that I can think of anyway - who wrote proficiently in Scots, in Gaelic and in English and was equally good at all of them."
Although born in Ayrshire, Neill spent much of his life in Dumfries and Galloway. A fact that McMillan said left a lasting impression on the region.
“He is Galloway’s father of the house, if you like,” he said. “He is the leading poetical figure in Galloway.
“He ruffled a lot of feathers and he was quite thrawn in a sense - he had a very acerbic tongue.
“He had very, very fiercely held opinions about Scottish nationalism and about literature and the landlords of Galloway and so on.”
Once, when asked about why he wrote in three languages, Neill replied: "Poets like to play with words and there's nothing wrong with having a bigger toy box than the man next door."
It is hoped the book will increase awareness of Neill’s skill as a poet and shine a light on his influence in contemporary Scottish poetry.
Neill died in 2010 aged 88.
