Obair La
Sunday 3 April 2005, 6.10pm, STV and Grampian
The Write Stuff
One of the brightest lights in the world of contemporary Gaelic literature features in the opening programme of Obair La, the Gaelic television series that offers the viewer a unique insight into the lives of some remarkable personalities who live and work in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Writer and poet Angus Peter Campbell was brought up in South Uist within a close-knit community where spoken Gaelic was commonplace though literature was still the preserve of the few individuals and institutions that could afford to buy books.
During the early formative years of Campbell’s youth, secondary education for South Uist children meant boarding away at Oban. Not wishing to have their children boarded out, the entire family moved to Oban, where the fourteen-year-old Angus Peter would come under the tutelage of an English teacher who opened up a whole new world of literature for the teenager. His new mentor, the acclaimed writer Iain Crichton Smith, proved to be inspirational: challenging his charges to think differently about the world that surrounded them and how words could magically transform and enrich it.
While at Edinburgh University, Angus Peter was to meet another of his great literary heroes when he plucked up the courage to take his early poetry to the renowned Gaelic bard Sorley MacLean for appraisal. After studying the student’s work, Angus Peter vividly recalls MacLean - who was Writer in Residence at Edinburgh at the time - sitting back into his chair and reflecting deeply for twenty minutes before finally rousing himself from a seemingly contemplative slumber and proceeding to engage the aspiring poet in lengthy conversation about 17th century history and the writers and poets of the period.
Currently in his second year working as Writer in Residence with the Iain Crichton Smith Writing Fellowship on Skye, Angus Peter Campbell invests half his time pursuing personal writing projects while the other half is devoted to supporting creative writing initiatives in rural primary schools around Skye and Lochalsh.
In October 2003 he published his first novel aimed at adults, An Oidhche Mus do Sheòl Sinn, which this year made it on to The List Magazine’s top 100 books of all time.
Exactly a year later he launched his second full novel in front of an eager audience of about 150 people at the Royal National Mod in Perth. La a’ Dèanamh Sgeil do La was described at the event by John Ailig MacPherson as "Even better than his first novel, An Oidhche Mus Do Sheòl Sinn, something I found hard to believe, given the strength of the first work."
These two works of adult fiction were both published by Clàr through Ur-Sgeul, a Gaelic Books Council sponsored initiative aimed at promoting new Gaelic prose for adults.
Currently living in Sleat, Skye, with his wife Lyndsey and their family of six, Angus Peter is clearly satisfied with his lot. Speaking enthusiastically, as if the Gaelic language itself is the seventh member of his family, he is fiercely protective of his native tongue and keen to nurture and promote it at every opportunity.
He firmly believes that you can explore any subject and artistic genre through the medium of Gaelic, and major events like the Edinburgh Book Festival, where La a’ Dèanamh Sgeil do La was launched, provide the kind of platform required to raise the profile of Gaelic literature.
He is also determined that his children will enjoy better access to good quality children’s literature than he had during his own childhood. Refusing to make room in his home for a television, Angus Peter encourages his children to indulge themselves in reading and creating their own forms of entertainment.
Angus Peter Campbell has successfully published several critically acclaimed books, including two collections of poetry and five short novels for schools. In 2001, he was awarded the Bardic Crown at the Royal National Mod held in the Western Isles, and in the same year was given a ‘Creative Scotland Award’ by the Scottish Arts Council.
Produced and directed by Magaidh MacKinnon for Paracas Media, edited at Studio Alba in Stornoway and funded by Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig, Obair Là will be broadcast on STV and Grampian on Sunday 3 April 2005 at 6.10pm.
For further information:
Magaidh MacKinnon, Paracas Media
Tel: 01851 810 269
