Whit If?

HUGH McMILLAN is a poet from Penpont in Dumfries and Galloway. He has written five full collections and has read at events and poetry festivals worldwide. He has featured in many anthologies, and three times in the Scottish Poetry Library’s online selection Best Scottish Poems of the year. His poems have also been chosen three times to feature on National Poetry Day postcards, the latest in 2016. In 2020 he was chosen as one of four ‘Poetry Champions’ for Scotland by the Scottish Poetry Library, to seek out and commission new work. Recently he was given the role as editor of ‘Best Scottish Poems’ for 2021.”

There is more than an air of fun in the concept but to file this book under ‘whimsy’ or ‘nonsense’ would be to completely miss the careful craft and considered structure that is so emblematic of Hugh’s poetry and which makes Whit If worth of your attention and yer bawbees. NORTHWORDS NOWTo hear Hugh McMillan read his poems is to be in the presence of a comedian of genius, as he delivers line after line of punching humour in a slightly surprised, smiling voice, so that we laugh and laugh but are left well aware that life isn’t funny. TESSA RANSFORD, Author of Not Just MoonshineHugh McMillan’s poetry... works like resonant and intricately packed short stories. LESLEY GLAISTER, Author of Blasted Things