Liz Lochhead

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Liz Lochhead (born December 26, 1947) is a Scottish poet and dramatist, originally from Newarthill in North Lanarkshire.

Background

After attending Glasgow School of Art, Lochhead lectured in fine art for eight years before becoming a professional writer.

In the early 1970s she joined Philip Hobsbaum's writers' group, a crucible of creative activity - other members were Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Tom Leonard, Aonghas MacNeacail and Jeff Torrington. Her plays include Blood and Ice, Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (1987), Perfect Days (2000) and a highly acclaimed adaptation into Scots of Molière's Tartuffe (1985). She adapted the medieval texts of the York Mystery Plays, performed by a largely amateur cast at York Theatre Royal in 1992 and 1996.^[1] Her adaptation of Euripides' Medea won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2001. She has written for BBC Radio 4: Blood and Ice (11 June 1990), The Perfect Days (16 May 1999), Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (11 February 2001) and The Stanley Baxter Playhouse: Mortal Memories (26 June 2006). Her adaptation of Helen Simpson's short story Burns and the Bankers was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Burns Night, 25 January 2012. Like her work for theatre, her poetry is alive with vigorous speech idioms; collections include Memo For Spring (1972), True Confessions and New Clichés (1985), Bagpipe Muzak (1991) and Dreaming Frankenstein: and Collected Poems (1984). She has collaborated with Dundee singer-songwriter Michael Marra.

In January 2011 she was named as the second Scots Makar, or national poet, succeeding Edwin Morgan who had died the previous year.^[2] She is currently the Honorary President of the Caledonian Cultural Fellows at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Radio Plays

Radio Plays adapted by Liz Lochhead
Date first broadcast	Play	Director	Cast	Synopsis Awards	Station Series
02012-01-2525 January 2012	Burns and the Bankers^[3]	Amber Barnfather	Sophie Thompson, John Sessions, Greg Wise, Peter Forbes, David McKay, Angela Darcy, Siobhan Redmond, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Maynard Eziashi	Helen Simpson's satirical and poignant short story, dramatised for radio by Liz Lochhead. Nicola Beaumont (English, partner in a law firm, mother of four) reluctantly sits down to a long-winded corporate Burns Supper. At first impatient with the whisky-fuelled pomposity around her, Nicola finds herself surprisingly moved as the traditional rituals of a Burns Night unfold. What she comes to learn about the eighteenth-century Scots poet brings new self-knowledge and helps her through the night's violent emotions and climactic events.	BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama

References

↑ http://www.yorkmysteryplays.org
↑ "Liz Lochhead confirmed as new Scots Makar". BBC News. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
↑ BBC – Afternoon Drama – Burns and the Bankers

External links

Liz Lochhead at British Council: Literature includes a "Critical Perspective" section
Scottish Poetry Library. Profile of Lochhead
BBC profile
National Centre for Early Music - archive of Mystery Plays

v t e Scots makars

c. 1370 – c. 1460	John Barbour Huchoun James I Sir Gilbert Hay Andrew of Wyntoun Richard Holland

c. 1460 – c. 1560	Blind Hary Robert Henryson Walter Kennedy William Dunbar Gavin Douglas David Lyndsay William Stewart

c. 1560 – 17th century	Alexander Scott Alexander Montgomerie James VI Castalian Band William Fowler Alexander Hume Robert Sempill Robert Sempill the younger Francis Sempill

18th century – 20th century	Allan Ramsay Robert Fergusson Robert Burns Robert Louis Stevenson Alicia Ann Spottiswoode William Soutar Robert Garioch Sydney Goodsir Smith Tom Scott George Campbell Hay Alexander Scott Hamish Henderson William Neill

Official appointment (from 2004)	Edwin Morgan Liz Lochhead

Authority control	VIAF: 32110100 ISNI: 0000 0001 0885 237X BNF: cb12540696n

Persondata
Name	Lochhead, Liz
Alternative names
Short description	British writer
Date of birth	December 26, 1947
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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