Arran’s McLellan Festival returned to its roots this year when the traditional opening event of the 10-day extravaganza, the prizewinners’ reading for the McLellan poetry prize, was held back in Corrie. The village hall provided the perfect setting for a warm and inspirational reading of this year’s crop of winning poems chosen by acclaimed poet Maura Dooley.
The competition attracts entries from far and wide and, as has often been the case, several of the prizewinners made long journeys to Arran specially to read their poems.
At Maura’s suggestion this year each poem was read twice, and this, coupled with her lucid explanation of why she had chosen them, worked brilliantly, giving the audience a real opportunity to absorb the subtleties of some fine poems.