THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY

The first of a trilogy on the life of Robert Burns, this is written out of a thorough familiarity with Burns' poetry and letters, with scholarship, and also with a feeling for eighteenth-century Scotland. This first part is concerned with Robin's early youth; his father's upright ways, but unlucky attempts to farm a land which was either bog or rock; his scanty schooling; and Robin's early poems in the Scotch language which came ""sweet to the tongue, dripping off like honey"", his love for the lasses. Fictional biography at its best, this recaptures much of the hardship- and the beauty- of his youth, with an authentic accent. But a market is questionable.