How my husband

persuaded Norman MacCaig

to change his name

 

Perhaps a minor point but one I think others might pick up on. I am led to believe that MacCaig was born McCaig and adopted the Mac spelling. Haven't found a concrete source for that info yet but I have come across it somewhere. Also the birth register has him as McCaig.
     Still doesn't excuse the Milne's Bar shocker, and I agree generally with the sentiment of Kenneth Roy's article (10 January), not least as a trustee of the Hamish Henderson Archive Trust – another of our cultural giants long overlooked.

Steve Byrne

It was my late husband, Callum Macdonald, publisher of the poetry magazine Lines Review, who persuaded Norman MacCaig, to insert the 'a' between Mc, as it looked better on the page. I'm not sure exactly when this was but Norman appears in Lines Review 3, published in summer 1953, as McCaig but in number 5, published in summer 1954, as MacCaig. I thought some of SR's readers might be interested in this little esoteric fact.
     It is disgraceful about Milne's Bar. Either they want to honour the poets or they don't. To have one's name spelt wrong is a huge annoyance, whether before or after death. Callum hated his Macdonald to be misspelt. MacDiarmid of course was a pseudonym and perhaps asking for trouble. I have great difficulty with capitals in the middle of Mac names, are they or are they not? I always have to check.

Tessa Ransford

 

They have misspelled Alasdair Gray's name on the wall of the Scottish Parliament. I hope they are embarrassed. What a disgrace.

Edwin Moore