Tam O'Shanter

TO SCOTS THE WORLD OVER, Tam o'Shanter - funny, scurrilous, gloriously inventive - has achieved iconic status.

Full of marvellous images it waited over 200 years for the partner who could realise the vision in the words.

That partner was Sandy Goudie. His cycle of Burns paintings, worked on for many years, captures all the facets of this marvellous poem and are full of energy and life. Originally planned to be bought as a cycle by the National Gallery, the bulk of the paintings now reside in Rozelle House in Ayrshire.

However Sandy continued to work on Tam until the end of his life and for the first time this book matches together Burns peerless poem with the full range of Sandy's paintings and drawings.

Introduced and edited by Ted Cowan and Alan Riach of Glasgow University, this is not simply a beautiful book but the definitive edition of Burns' masterpiece.