Derick Thomson

This article is in English. The Gaelic version can be read here.

Published Collections

 * Far Road (1970)
 * Freedom and the Eagle (1977)
 * Creachadh na Clàrsaich: Collected Poems, 1940-80 (1982)
 * Meall Garbh: Rugged Mountain (1985)
 * Bàrdachd na Roinn Eòrpa an Gàidhlig (1990)
 * Smeur an Dòchais: The Bramble of Hope (1992)
 * Sùil air Fàire (Surveying the Horizon) (2007)

Biography
Derick Thomson was born in Upper Bayble in 1921. He went to the local school (where his father was headmaster) and continued his education at the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway. A lifelong academic, he went on to study at the Universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge and University College of North Wales, Bangor. He held the post of lecturer at the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. He became Professor of Celtic at Glasgow in 1963, and retired in 1991.

Thomson was founder and editor of the magazine Gairm, the longest-running Gaelic periodical, which ran for over fifty years. His interest in writing and publishing led him to author many books over the years, from his Introduction to Gaelic Poetry to an English-Gaelic dictionary. He is also an active literary critic.

He was Chairman of the Gaelic Books Council 1968-9, President of the Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, a former member of the Scottish Arts Council and was the first recipient of the Ossian Prize in 1974. Professor Thomson was Chairman of the SNP's Gaelic Committee in the Seventies, and is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was awarded an honourary degree from the University of Glasgow in 2007.

His poetry is similar to Iain Crichton Smith’s in that it is often concerned with issues of identity, but is often fiercely nationalistic as well.