Robert McNeil

1 week ago | heraldscotland.com | Robert McNeil

Edwin Morgan (Image: Agency) THIS week’s Icon was right good wi’ language, both writing it – in verse – and translating it. Edwin Morgan is something of a saint Glasgow-side, becoming that exuberant city’s first Poet Laureate and, indeed, Scotland’s first Makar or national poet. The author of more than 60 books, he was jolly left-wing, which probably dates him a little. He came to prominence in the 1960s when he was already 40, and came out as gay in 1990 when he was already 70.

2 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Robert McNeil

This week: Judy Murray ANY reader aspiring to the standard demanded of this series will earn a black mark if he or she dares suggest this week’s Icon is just “somebody’s maw”. True, Judy Murray is the mother of tennis notables Andy and Jamie of that ilk. But she’s more than a tennis mum. She’s a professional coach in her own right, with a passion rooted in her own promising but truncated playing career. And she’s a popular personality, to boot.

3 weeks ago | heraldscotland.com | Robert McNeil

THIS week’s Icon was placed in a Times list, drawn up in 2008, of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”, while a Waterstones poll ranked his first novel, The Wasp Factory, among the best 100 books of the 20th century. Bright, articulate and engaging, Iain Banks wrote dark, macabre and disturbingly humorous books full of plot twists, cliffhangers and intriguing technological developments. They allowed him to achieve the rare feat of producing bestsellers praised by critics.

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Robert McNeil

Scots TV presenter Gail Porter rose to fame hosting children's shows (Image: Agency) THIS week’s subject is famous for her bottom and her head. The former was projected as part of a 60ft image on yonder Houses of Parliament, the latter fell victim to alopecia. Alopecia in women is an unfortunate condition worthy of sympathy and support, unlike male pattern baldness which is God’s punishment for lewd thoughts.

1 month ago | heraldscotland.com | Robert McNeil

Donovan had independently mined the same musical sources as Bob Dylan and, while he admitted that the great man’s seminal Blowin’ in the Wind was an inspiration, he creditably denied being a copyist IF YOU’D heard Donovan singing in the 1960s about sunshine, love and psychedelia, you’d never had guessed he was from Maryhill. San Francisco, aye. Even England. He had a Hertfordshire accent.