Collected Poems

Robert Rendall

Robert Rendall was one of Orkney's best 20th-century poets (as well as being an expert on shells and a gifted amateur painter). In his lifetime he published four well-received books of poetry (Country Sonnets, Orkney Variants, Shore Poems and The Hidden Land), but his work has been hard to obtain for many years. Now with this volume of Collected Poems, edited by Dr John Flett Brown and Brian Murray, the true scale of his achievement can be seen for the first time.

'A treasure chest of material -- nearly three hundred pages of poems. ... Robert Rendall had the technical ability to choose the style that best suited what he wanted to say ... In short, he was not first and foremost a dialect poet. He was simply a poet -- a poet who could express himself superbly in dialect, but also equally well in a variety of other forms. ... It is a very significant book.'
-- Howie Firth, The Orcadian

'A huge and timely undertaking, and a crucial addition to Orkney's literary heritage ... Robert Rendall was a great appreciator with a tirelessly enquiring mind. His life and influence need to be remembered, and his poetry deserves to live, and be read and enjoyed by succeeding generations.'
-- Pam Beasant, Northwords Now

Long after the sun had set on the British raj in India, Scots from Dundee were still running jute mills in India and what was then East Pakistan. They were the bosses, the 'burrah sahibs'. As a small boy in the 1960s, Max Scratchmann found himself in a world where everything was different -- the tastes, the smells, his home, the languages, his school -- nothing was like 'back home'...

It was the end of an era, however, and what seemed like a more or less permanent state of affairs proved to be no such thing...

'His tales of a childhood spent in an exotic culture show a vibrant, interesting and cosmopolitan world ... Funny, personal and moving, it's an elegy to a lost past but one that also helped to shape the Max of the future'
-- Helen Brown, The Courier

'Three years of magical, colour-filled childhood ... Max Scratchmann takes us from the grey-faced Dundee of his early years to life amid the scorching, bustling streets of politically nervous Chittagong ... tells his story and introduces his characters with the easy style of a practised humorist ... warm and witty'
-- Ian Smith, The Scots Magazine

The Last Burrah Sahibs

Max Scratchmann

Backlist Highlight

Blown Seed

David Toulmin
2013
Centenary of his birth

Founded in 2001, Steve Savage Publishers started with the acquisition of the list of Gordon Wright Publishing Ltd, of Edinburgh. Our intention is to develop Gordon Wright's strong commitment to Scottish writing. Our list includes books on Scottish history, literature, languages and folklore, as well as guidebooks, humorous titles, and new and classic writing from Scotland and elsewhere.