Robin Jenkins

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This article is about the Scottish writer. For the English cricketer, see Robin Martin-Jenkins

Robin Jenkins (11 September 1912 - 24 February 2005) was a Scottish writer with about thirty novels to his name, although the only one known to a wide public is The Cone Gatherers. He was born John Jenkins in Cambuslang, Scotland, in 1912, and was brought up by his mother on her own and with very little money - his father had died when he was 7. Upon the release of his first novel, So Gaily Sings the Lark, in 1951 he adopted the pseudonym 'Robin'.

Jenkins was also an English teacher - he taught in Kabul, Borneo and Barcelona, as well as Dunoon Grammar School. He spend four years at the Gaya School in Sabah, Borneo, living there with his wife May and their children. Before that, he had held British Council teaching posts in both Kabul and Barcelona.

Although his most widely known novel, The Cone Gatherers, is widely studied in the Scottish school system, he has a wealth of material which is arguably more well-written and challenging. While The Cone Gatherers has often been criticized as being held apart from any real sense of place, novels such as The Thistle and the Grail, his 1954 football story, paint vivid pictures of more accessible settings. His writing typically touches on many themes, including morality, the struggle of good and evil, war, class, and social justice. These are often packed so tightly into one small novel that many levels of meaning are inherent throughout.