Angus Peter Campbell / Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul

(born 1952 - ) -South Uist, Outer Hebrides

Angus Peter Campbell / Aonghas Phàdraig Caimbeul

Angus Peter Campbell, or Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul in Gaelic, was born near South Boisdale on the Hebridean island of South Uist. He attended Gearradh na Monadh school before moving to Oban High School, where he was taught English by Iain Crichton Smith. While studying History and Politics at the University of Edinburgh, Campbell met and studied under another great Scottish writer, Sorley MacLean. With such encouragement, it is little wonder that he became a full-time writer of both novels and poetry in English and Gaelic.

He returned to South Uist after university, before starting work as a journalist for the West Highland Free Press, and then both BBC and Grampian TV. He continues to write and present for television and radio. He also appears in the Gaelic feature film Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle, in a role for which he was nominated for a Scottish BAFTA award.

Angus Peter Campbell has written three Gaelic novels for children, for the Gaelic education service Stòrlann; two English poetry collections, three Gaelic adult novels and Invisible Islands, his first English-language novel. His newest novel, An Taigh-Samhraidh, is published in May 2007.

Of writing in Gaelic, he has said in the West Highland Free Press: "I still run my written Gaelic past various scholars," he says. "It's hellish that your life is spent reclaiming this thing that should have been a birthright."

Angus Peter Campbell now lives on Skye with his wife and six children.

  • Cover scan of Invisible Islands
    Invisible Islands
    'The Invisible Islands' is a collection of 21 stories, each illuminating a specific island in the mythic Invisible Islands archipelago. The central theme is what connects landscape, culture and tradition.
  • Cover scan of Là A' Dèanamh Sgèil Do Là
    Là A' Dèanamh Sgèil Do Là
    It is a novel which begins in the Torrin/Elgol area of Skye in 2010, when an old man comes to the door carrying a bag of winkles on his shoulders.
  • Cover scan of Meas Air Chrannaibh
    Meas Air Chrannaibh
    This is a collection of Angus Peter Campbell's modern Gaelic poetry. It includes poems that are translated into English by the author, and into Scots by J. Derrick McClure.
  • Cover scan of An Oidhche Mus Do Sheòl Sinn
    An Oidhche Mus Do Sheòl Sinn
    The story follows a young boy from South Uist. As he crouches by the edge of the loch, he is deciding whether or not to throw the stone-skiffler he's holding. It is 1913 and his two older brothers are down on the machair already deciding to throw their dice and head for the trenches.
  • Cover scan of An Taigh-Samhraidh
    An Taigh-Samhraidh
    An Taigh-Samhraidh (The Holiday House) is the third novel from Angus Peter Campbell.

Bibliography