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On 2 December 2006, Professors Nigel Leask and Alan Riach gave their inaugural lectures for appointment to the Regius Chair of English Language and Literature and the Chair of Scottish Literature respectively.

Professor Leask examined nineteenth-century Scottish literature and criticism in relation to the political, cultural and psychological boundaries with England and the wider world, tracing influences into, and out of, Scotland.

Professor Riach examined the modern work of Edwin Morgan, again uncovering that same combination of the inward and the outward, the national and the international, in contemporary literature.

These two stimulating lectures, infused with a passion for the validity and worth of English and Scottish – and many other – literatures, are presented here in full, along with accompanying illustrations, a preface by Professor Douglas Gifford and an Afterword by the poet and playwright Liz Lochhead. 

CONTENTS

• Preface: Stepping Westward
• Introduction: Douglas Gifford
• Across the Shadow Line: Nigel Leask
• Once Upon a Time in the West of Scotland: Alan Riach
• Afterword: Liz Lochhead
• Colour Plates