A Son of the Rock

A Jessie Kesson Companion, Black and White, 2000, 204 p, including 13 p Commentary; plus ii p Contents and xii p Introduction.

This is a collection of Kesson’s shorter works, encompassing stories, poems and radio plays, though a lot of her work for radio has, it seems, been lost. While most pieces are in fairly standard English with some Scots phrases the second story here, Ferm Deen, is written fully in an uncompromising Scots – and all the better for it.

Editor Isobel Murray has chosen to emphasise Kesson’s troubled upbringing (born to a single mother who engaged in prostitution to try to make ends meet and found solace in drink; taken off to an orphanage for being “neglected”; denied the fuller education she desired and later literally farmed out to smallholders as a kitchen helper before spending a year in a mental hospital.)

This is not a perverse choice, Kesson’s work (especially her early work) reflects those childhood experiences, the loss she felt, the longing for what she had considered a loving home and the compensations she managed to find. But, despite her writing successes, she never lost regret for the life she could have had had she attended University.

All the pieces are well written and poignant with a sharp eye for character and ear for phraseology.

Pedant’s corner:- swop (swap.)