Brownsbank toasts 100th anniversary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s birth

Hugh MacDiarmid, one of Scotland’s most renowned writers, lived there until his death in 1978. His wife Valda lived on at Brownsbank until her death in 1989. Many locals will remember the two of them during their time there.

After Valda’s death Brownsbank became available in 1993 as a place for aspiring writers to reside for between one and two years. This scheme ran until 2012 when financial support from South Lanarkshire Council dried up; now some major fundraising is required to save this important residence and restart the Writers in Residence programme

One of the previous writers in residence was Matthew Fitt. He worked for a while in Biggar High’s English Department before he left the area to get support for the Scots Language.

Initially this was not easy as there was hardly any money available. Matthew rose to this challenge and has translated a number of books into Scots.

This has been very successful, despite the lack of initial support in educational circles which is now beginning to change.

As a historian, I’ve always been interested in the Scots language as it is essential to understand Scots to make sense of historical sources from the Middle Ages. It is an important part of our culture and heritage and every effort should be made to encourage and support it.

Matthew has produced some very entertaining versions of the Asterix books. He has also written translations for a wide number of children’s book including the Snowman, Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Tam O’Shanter the Comic. More recently he penned an SFI novel called ‘But N Ben A-Go-Go’ about Scots surviving on floating islands in the Clyde Delta.

Matthew has not only worked to preserve Scots but has helped to make it a true living language and this happened in no small part to being a writer residence at Brownsbank. For this, and many other reasons, Brownsbank must be preserved.

A number of events are being organised this year by the Brownsbank Trust to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s birth.