A newly-discovered manuscript of Gaelic original work from major Scottish writer Iain Crichton Smith will be published by Ùr-Sgeul, together with a complementary Talking CD, on World Book Day, 2 March 2006. 

Ùr-Sgeul has also recently relaunched its website (www.ur-sgeul.com ) which has been completely updated and redesigned. 

The Author
Iain Crichton Smith (Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn) was born in Glasgow in 1928, but moved to the isle of Lewis at the age of two, where he was brought up by his widowed mother in the small crofting town of Bayble where his first language was Gaelic. Educated at the University of Aberdeen, Crichton Smith took a degree in English, and after serving in the National Service Army Education Corps, went on to become a teacher. He taught in Clydebank, Dumbarton and Oban from 1952, retiring to become a full-time writer in 1977, although he already had many novels and poems published. He was awarded an OBE in 1980. Am Miseanaraidh (The Missionary) has been described as one of his finest Gaelic stories.

Extract from Am Miseanaraidh
"A' chiad oidhche a laigh e air a leabaidh anns an eaglais, bha beagan cianalais air, ach cha do sheas sin fada. Ann an ceann dhà no trì lathaichean bha Alba mar fhaileas air cùl inntinn fad' airfalbh, gun shusbaint, mar bheanntan air latha fliuch. Agus bha an teas a' bualadh air mar òrd de theine."

Extract from The Missionary (English translation)
"The first night he slept in the church he felt a little homesickness but this did not last long and after a few days Scotland was to him as distant and hazy as its bluish mountains seem on a misty day, insubstantial, vague, almost incoherent. But the heat of Africa beat on him like a hammer.”

Am Miseanaraidh (The Missionary)
Iain Mac a’ Ghobainn (Iain Crichton Smith)

"Crichton Smith was an almighty powerhouse of a writer; his penetrating, clear-eyed and compassionate style explores great depths of human intellect, experience and emotion without sacrificing an innate lucidity and an edifying humanity. This fresh publication of an insightful and poetic narrative will be warmly welcomed by Crichton Smith's many dedicated readers."
Kevin MacNeil, Writer

"In The Missionary, published by the vital Ùr-Sgeul for the first time in the original Gaelic, Crichton Smith is exploring the way in which religious doctrine and practice is challenged once it is placed in a totally different context."
Angus Peter Campbell, Writer and broadcaster

The Book
Crichton Smith’s central contribution to modern Gaelic, indeed Scottish, literature cannot be underestimated. He became the Gaelic modernist writer par excellence and wrote with a complete knowledge and consciousness of the way writers such as Faulkner, Beckett and Arthur Miller had forever changed literature.

The Missionary concerns a Highland minister, Donald, who goes to Africa as a missionary. His beliefs and practices and, ultimately, his faith are seriously challenged by people, place and circumstance. The ‘whiteness’ or purity of his doctrine is confronted by the ‘darkness’ and ancient pagan practices of Africa and, after a series of events, Donald is tempted by alternatives, both of the flesh and of the spirit. Like Conrad, Crichton Smith uses the traditional metaphor of the jungle and the way in which it swallows the sun as the motif that threatens to swallow Donald’s belief system and western (Highland) ways.

As with much of Crichton Smith’s writing, the story is full of allusions and symbolic meaning, but written in a clear, sharp and detached way. The story develops rapidly and the end is surprising in its sense of hope and possible joy and potential for redemption. Apparent polarities such as love and hate are much closer than the linguistic compass-points would suggest, and this may have been Crichton Smith’s true position – he was aware that our common humanity, in the end, outdistances our geographic, linguistic or theological positioning. This cross-cultural reaching out at the end of The Missionary is what makes the story so relevant and contemporary. Am Miseanaraidh (The Missionary) has been described as one of his finest Gaelic stories.

For further information please contact Helen Loughlin on helen@enterprise.net