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 Mercat
Press has republished a collection of J K Annand’s Scots verse for
children, which has been described by Paul H Scott as being ‘among the
best writing for children in any language’. The book, in its attractive
new paperback format, was first published in 1989 under the title A Wale o
Rhymes.
J K Annand was a teacher
and a life-long champion of the Scots language. Both these interests found
a happy outlet in his children’s poetry. He associated the Scots
language with his own youth and the language was a medium he could use
naturally to return to a childhood perspective in writing the bairn
rhymes. According to Alan Bold, ‘as a poet he was most successful when
addressing young folk… these bairnsangs have charmed many Scottish
children into appreciating Scots’.
Annand was born in
Edinburgh in 1908. He was the author of several volumes of poetry, among
them the three books of verse for children which are collected in Bairn
Rhymes. He was a founder member of the Scots Language Society and editor
of Lines Review and Lallans. Mercat Press were the publishers of his
Selected Poems 1925-1990. He died in 1993.
The poems in Bairn Rhymes
are grouped under different headings: For the Wee Anes, Games, Beasts,
Birds, Folk, Special Days and Orra Ploys, and are accompanied by
delightful line drawings by Dennis Carabine.
The distinguished Scots
poet Robert Garioch has said: ‘Most children enjoy poetry, but it is not
easy to write the poems that they like. J K Annand’s bairn rhymes have
been thoroughly tried and tested and must have pleased their public, the
most demanding in the world…’
Listen to a Real Audio
version of one of his poems - AULD FARRANT
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