Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) was one of Scotland’s leading twentieth century public intellectuals, and famously one of its most brilliant and combative correspondents. His letters raise issues of particular and widespread interest both within Scotland and further afield. His correspondence with Stephen Bann, the English poet and academic have a very special place in this context. These letters present in a clear and commensurable form the development of his ideas about poetry and art, and increasingly about sculpture and gardening, over this critical five year period of his creative life.

…Bann’s superb two volume set of Finlay’s correspondence…These handsomely printed volumes, amply footnoted, with biographical and historical commentary leading readers up and down the stony path, are an extended conversation with one of twentieth-century Britain’s most unexpected artists. -Times Literary Supplement
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