This book contains a lifetime's experience of making poems - George Bruce began when he was seven years old. His is an ever-searching mind, which is reflected in the wide range of subject matter, yet the choice of subjects is never arbitrary. They are responsive to social conditions. Thus he writes about the stubborn independent minds of the North-East of Scotland, and especially of the fisherman, not because he was born in Fraserburgh but because the depressing events of the thirties and the war demanded the projection of enduring humane values, and this he saw presented in the way of life in which he was brought up. Consequently these poems speak with a directness which has made them accessible to a wide range of readers.
George Bruce was fortunate in having liberal-minded parents his mother hoped he would be an artist, his father developed his enquiring mind. 'I could not be an artist', he said, 'but I became posessed by the images of great artists - El Greco, Rembrandt, Cezanne, and many others, but finally John Bellany.' To these he responded and made verbal experiences of their visual works. In his Preface to this book, Edwin Morgan writes: 'The range and depth of these poems stand ready to surprise readers. Here he is now collected for your enjoyment, with a deep and moving trawl of many years.' The appreciation of George Bruce's work is not confined to an elder generation. Of him George Gunn, poet and dramatist, wrote: 'The life, work and sheer energy of Bruce is a result of a dedication to the art of poetry few can sustain or hope to match.'
Pursuit won the Saltire Scotsman Award for the best Scottish book of 1999.
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