Walter Perrie in Conversation with Scottish Writers : Donald Campbell, Duncan Glen, Tessa Ransford, Trevor Royle, William Hershaw, Alasdair Gray, Margaret Bennett, John Herdman

The interviews in this collection were recorded over a period of fifteen years between 2006 and 2020. They include leading figures in our national poetry, drama, the novel, short-story, history, and folk-studies, as well as publishing, education and broadcasting.

WALTER PERRIE grew up in Lanarkshire in the 1950s and was educated at the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, philosophical and critical essays and pamphlets, as well as a book on Eastern Europe, Roads that Move (Mainstream, 1991), written in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

He has been the recipient of several literary awards, including a Scottish Arts Council Book Award for A Lamentation for the Children (Canongate, 1977), a Society of Authors travelling fellowship, a Gregory prize for poetry, and an Ingram-Merril Award (New York). Having co-founded and edited the literary magazine Chapman in 1970, Perrie moved to rural Perthshire where he continues to write, edit and publish. He has tirelessly promoted the work of poets and writers, particularly in the magazine Fras, which now runs to over 30 issues.

In 2020 Grace Note Publications published Walter Perrie’s celebrated lyrical autobiography in 101 poems, The Ages of Water. In this new book, Perrie is in conversation with eight writers who have made substantial contributions to Scotland’s literary and cultural life, capturing biographical details and personal philosophies that have influenced their writing.