MacDiarmid's Brownsbank | BLF 2026

One hundred years on, Hugh MacDiarmid's 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' gets the tribute it deserves. 

Join Alan Riach, James Robertson and Gerda Stevenson as they read from the 1926 epic and present Ayont the Thistle – a new anthology gathering over 70 essays and poems written in response to the poem.

Michael MacKenzie adds his own personal selection of MacDiarmid's work, and the children of Black Mount Primary School provide music for the occasion.

A rare chance to hear one of Scottish literature's great works marked in style, a century on.

Proceeds go to MacDiarmid's Brownsbank Trust