Robin Jenkins

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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. Born John Jenkins, in 1912, his father died when he was only seven years old and he was brought up by his mother - on her own and with very little means. He attended Hamilton Academy. He was a conscientious objector in the Second World War, working in forestry. Upon the release of his first novel, 'So Gaily Sings the Lark', in 1951 he adopted the pseudonym 'Robin'.

Jenkins was also an English and History teacher. He taught at Riverside Secondary in Glasgow's East End and later at Dunoon Grammar School. He also spent four formative 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 best-known novel,'The Cone Gatherers', based upon his forestry work as a conscientious objector, is widely studied in the Scottish school system, he has a wealth of other material which is arguably better and more challenging. While 'The Cone Gatherers' has often been criticised as being devoid of any real sense of place, other 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 between good and evil, war, class, and social justice. These are often packed so tightly into one short novel that many levels of meaning are inherent throughout.