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| Memoirs |
| Sir Alexander Fleming Lord Boyd Orr |
| Stewart Conn (b.1936) |
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Poet and Dramatist Stewart Conn was born in Glasgow but moved to Kilmarnock in 1942 when his father, the Revd Dr John Conn, was called to be minister of St Marnock's Church in the town. The family had Ayrshire roots, having relatives who farmed on Craigie Hill. He entered the Primary Department of Kilmarnock Academy and enrolled in the secondary school in 1948, leaving after S6 in 1954. His school record, still preserved in Kilmarnock Academy, shows that he followed an academic course, taking Highers in English, History, Latin, French and Biology. In his senior years he was involved in producing the school magazine, Goldberry. After taking a degree at the University of Glasgow he did National Service in the RAF. He then became a producer with BBC Radio and was appointed Senior Drama Producer for BBC Radio Scotland in 1977 where he was able to encourage many younger writers. Since his first poetry collection, Thunder in the Air (1967), Conn has published a further eight collections. His early poems drew upon his Ayrshire experience, territory he has returned to with his most recent poetry book, In the Blood (1995). He is also a distinguished playwright, his most widely-acclaimed plays being The Burning, first performed in 1971, and Herman, first produced in 1981. Douglas Dunn has written that Conn has an 'unnerving sense of the fragility of life' (Douglas Dunn, Oxford Companion to 20th Century Poetry). His early poems set in the countryside near Kilmarnock deal with the harsh realities of farming. In the Blood has several poems such as 'Castles' and 'School Motto', which deal with the period of his life when he was a pupil at Kilmarnock Academy: Our infants mistress Annie C. MacLarty FEIS took us to her ample bosom before handing us over to Davy Gordon, who ruled
with a rod of iron. we were further matured by two breakdowns and a suicide. Later our French master went into mourning, when a colleague's son got only a third at Aberdeen. By then, we others had gone our own
way: unshriven, to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly. From 'School Motto' In the Blood (1995) © Stewart Conn Kilmarnock Academy, he makes it clear, is 'In the Blood'. Conn's humane vision and understated lyricism has established him as a significant contemporary Scottish voice.
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