DANCERS INHERIT THE PARTY: EARLY STORIES, PLAYS AND POEMS; ED. BY KEN COCKBURN

Ian Hamilton Finlay's early literary work has been overshadowed by his later achievements in the visual arts, particularly the garden at Little Sparta. This anthology is therefore a welcome volume, to which Ken Cockburn provides an introduction. The mordant wit of a story like "The Money" about an artist's financial situation, still has contemporary relevance; and the poems - particularly the Orkney lyrics and the "Glasgow Beasts"--Shimmer with elegy, bright humour and intelligence.