History Scotland Magazine: Review - Tae the Lasses

Tae the Lasses

Maureen Bell

Sleepytown Books, 2001 ISBN 1904072003, 436pp 20.00 pb

The Burns Calendar

Maureen Bell

Sleepytown Books, 2001 ISBN 1904072011 192pp 75 b/w illustrations, 11.99 pb.

Travelling to work on a bus in late January I overheard an interesting exchange. One man said to another; Did you do anything for Burns Night yesterday? The second replied; No, nothing, I couldnt be bothered. Its not like Rabbie Burns has done anything new lately.

I pondered this attitude and agreed that not much new stuff comes from Burns these days. Not outside the groves of academia anyway. Encouragingly we now have something delightfully fresh.

Maureen Bells illustrated book Tae The Lasses is a stimulating gallop through a catalogue of the women who influenced the poetry and the life of Robert Burns. The book is well structured; beginning with a history of the Bard and his antecedents there follows a brief introduction To the Lasses. We then get a lucid biography of each and the associated songs they inspired. By now youve had your moneys worth. If that wasnt enough there ensues the tunes and songs and a truly fantastic, and occasionally quirky, Burns-own notes to the songs. A letter to Dr. John Moor on song 2 Now Westlin Winds is wonderful (p. 407).

But the biographies. This is the real meat of the book. Bell draws on poems, songs, letters and contemporary gossip to celebrate the women who irrevocably changed the life of Burns. Some were pretty youngsters acting simply as the poets muse and evoking a pastoral and lyric expression. Others were clearly more significant; some arousing the poets passionate love and some his ascorbic wrath and others, well, they clearly brought the bacon home. Burns was passionate about them all.

For anyone starting with Burns this is a good introduction to the hypocrisy ridden, class divided and inelegantly political late 18th century that he had to endure. Bell lets her collection point out that ploughman poets did not easily consort with the upper social orders in Edinburgh and excisemen did not easily support socialist ideology in Dumfries. Despite the social mores of Edinburgh society, the Kirk and the Excise Commission, Burns pursued his passions, sometimes without honour, to the hilt. But this book is really all about the lasses, God bless them. If you want a warm window into what inspires a fiery and passionate man of the soil and soul, read this book. Dont let the boyfriends and husbands get hold of it though, it may give them ideas!

Maureen Bell was very busy in 2001. The Burns Calendar is the revival of a book by the same name published in 1874 by James McKie, but radically augmented. Something of Burns seems to have stuck with Bell, as this illustrated account of the history of Burns and his contemporaries generously fills 366 days with ease. In a broad sweep this diary encompasses everything from the birth of Burns maternal grandparents in 1731 to the establishment of a plaque to Agnes McLehose Clarinda in Edinburgh in 1937. The scope may be wider. Each date has several entries from many years before and after. Each month is concluded with events appropriate to the month but with only the year stated. You get your moneys worth here too. The Burns Calendar is an exhaustive and unusual cornucopia of Burnsean Stuff; but not to be read from start to finish in my mind, far too many people die. A lot goes on in two hundred years around a persons life. This book is entertaining to dip into and you can cross-reference with Tae The Lasses to see that Bell has done her homework thoroughly.

Bells love of the muse and the Poetic Heart is clear from the preface of both books. If you raise your Christmas glass to Cheer, raise it to Maureen Bell and Tae the Lasses.

Jamie Hamilton,
Edinburgh