This image is the cover for the book Many Days

Many Days

A centennial celebration of the Scottish poet. “[A] testament to his apperception and skill in crafting verse on the impulse of things seen and thought.” —PN Review

By the time of his death in January 1996, Norman MacCaig was known widely as the grand old man of Scottish poetry, honored by an Order of the British Empire (OBE) and the Queen’s Medal for Poetry. This book is a celebration of MacCaig’s life—published in 2010, the hundredth anniversary of his birth—and it features 100 of his best poems, edited by his son Ewen.

Praise for Norman MacCaig

“I have always loved the mixture of strictness and susceptibility in Norman MacCaig’s work. It is an ongoing education in the marvelous possibilities of lyric poetry.” —Seamus Heaney

“I have read or re-read every poem (in the Collected Poems), and I think it one of the greatest literary experiences of my life.” —Sorley MacLean

“Whenever I read his poems, I’m always struck by their undated freshness; everything about them is alive, as new and essential, as ever.” —Ted Hughes

Norman MacCaig, Roderick Watson

Norman MacCaig was born in Edinburgh in 1910. His formal education was firmly rooted in the Edinburgh soil: he attended the Royal High School, Edinburgh University and then trained to be a teacher at Moray House. Having spent years educating young children he later taught Creative Writing, first at Edinburgh University, then at the University of Stirling. He died in 1996.

Birlinn Ltd