Killochries
A verse novella by Glasgow Laureate Jim Carruth, Killochries tracks the relationship of two very different men working a remote farm over the course of twelve months. A young man is sent to work at Killochries, a farm belonging to a relative, after burning out in the city. He is appalled by the absence of his previous life's essentials, by the remote strangeness of this new world.
The old shepherd has never left the hills; has farmed them all his life. He doesn't care for the troubles of the modern world, trusting only in God, and greets the incomer with taciturn indifference. Through weeks shaped by conflict, hardship and loss a new understanding grows.
'Masterfully done … who better to puncture the myth of the pastoral idyll than a man who obviously understands both the hardships of the farming life, and its hard-won delights?' — Scotland on Sunday
'Killochries is a remarkable and moving book.' — Magma Poetry
'... evocative, lush ... the narrator's slow walk towards a sense of peace makes this collection a remarkable read.' — Scottish Review of Books
'A novel in verse that is artistically successful and highly satisfying.' — Herald
Jim Carruth was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, and grew up on his family’s farm near Kilbarchan. His first chapbook collection Bovine Pastoral was published in 2004. Since then he has brought out a further five chapbooks and an illustrated fable. He has won both the James McCash poetry competition and the McLellan Poetry Prize and was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2009. He was chosen as one of the poets showcased in Oxford Poets 2010. In 2014 he was appointed Poet Laureate of Glasgow.
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