Donald Smith

Donald Smith is Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, a post he has held since 2001 when the organisation was launched. Prior to his, he had been director of the Netherbow Arts Centre.

Smith was born in Glasgow, but was a "son of the Manse" and lived in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling; he spent his summers in Northern Ireland, which helped awaken his appreciation of the Scots language after his very formal English-language upbringing. Smith studied English Literature and Classical Greek at the University of Edinburgh in the 1970s; later, he took a PhD.

As a playwright, his first play, The Bothy, was produced in 1986; most recently Jekyll and Hyde: A Specimen for the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature project. His first novel, The English Spy, was published in 2007. His most recent books were both about Robert Burns - the novel Between Ourselves, and the biography God, The Poet and the Devil - both 2009.

Donald Smith is married with five children.

  • Cover scan of Between Ourselves
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    Between Ourselves - Paperback
    'Between Ourselves' reads between the lines of historical fact, exposing the life of Robert Burns during the intense six months he spent in Edinburgh in 1788
  • Cover scan of The English Spy
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    The English Spy - Paperback
    This tale of intrigue and betrayal goes to the heart of events surrounding the Treaty of Union in 1707. Daniel Foe (better known as Defoe), sent to Scotland to sway opinion towards Union, reports to his English spymaster. But Edinburgh is already a hotbed of counter-plots and nascent rebellion.
  • Cover scan of God, The Poet And The Devil
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    God, The Poet And The Devil: Robert Burns And Religion - Hardback
    Told chronologically, this title tells the story of Burns' life from his family's background in the Mearns to his early death in Dumfries and his influence beyond. It discusses his relationship with God and religion and the dilemma - how did this intensely moral man reconcile this with his notoriously libertarian lifestyle?
  • Cover scan of A Long Stride Shortens The Road
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    A Long Stride Shortens The Road: Poems Of Scotland - Paperback
    The poems in this collection chart the main staging posts in Scotland's recent history, but also reveal a personal narrative of exile and attachment, an intimate engagement with Scottish landscape, and a sense of the spiritual in all things.

Bibliography

Last modified Thursday 22 January 2009
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