During the second half of the 1970s Robin Fulton's place in the ranks of contemporary British poetry became assured, and his position in modern Scottish writing was considerably strengthened by a continual flow of exceptional work that appears far superior to much that is being written by others of his literary generation. He has gained a following in the poetry-reading public and his work has achieved high critical acclaim both in Britain and overseas.

Born on the Isle of Arran, one of the most beautiful of the offshore Scottish islands, in 1937, Fulton was educated there and in Sutherland, on the mainland, before he went on to Edinburgh University, graduating in 1959 with an M.A. in English. He spent most of the next decade as a schoolmaster in Scotland, a period he states is "best forgotten." In 1969-1971, he held a writer's fellowship at his old university, earning a...