[close] St Andrews has long played a central role in the religious, political and cultural life of Scotland. Its ecclesiastical significance dates as far back as the fourth century AD, when St Regulus is claimed to have brought the relics of its eponymous saint there; later, it was a battleground of the Scottish reformation. Its cultural importance dates from the early fifteenth century, when the world-famous university was founded there. More recently (since the seventeenth century) it has been well known as a centre for golf. This selection of stories, poems and memoirs is a wonderful literary celebration of this venerable city which explores the multiple facets of its life and history. The anthology, like the town itself, features an enormous cast of characters: golfers, ghosts, kids from the caravan site, students and professors, born Fifers and visitors from near and far parts of the planet. Some of the writers whose work is featured here live and work in St Andrews; others passed through some time ago; one or two, like Homer, or St Andrew, never set foot in the place, but are linked to it regardless. This rich and diverse selection of writing spans four millennia and includes specially commissioned pieces from: Seamus Heaney ¥ A.L. Kennedy ¥ Don Paterson ¥ Sarah Hall ¥ Scott Forbes ¥ Thomas A. Clark ¥ Tom Pow ¥ Meaghan Delahunt ¥ Douglas Dunn ¥ Susan Sellers ¥ Paul Muldoon ¥ A.B. Jackson ¥ Meg Bateman as well as previously published work from a wide range of authors, including: Robert Fergusson ¥ Alastair Reid ¥ Ian Rankin ¥ Samuel Johnson ¥ Robert Burns ¥ Robert Louis Stevenson ¥ Edwin Morgan ¥ Hugh MacDiarmid ¥ Willa Muir ¥ Douglas Dunn ¥ Anna Crowe ¥ Rudyard Kipling ¥ Kathleen Jamie ¥ Liz Lochhead ¥ J.M. Barrie ¥ Homer ¥ Walter de la Mare ¥ J.M. Barrie ¥ Tom Scott ¥ Walter Bower [close]