Neil M. Gunn was a novelist, critic and dramatist, regarded as one of the most important Scottish authors of the early twentieth century. Born in Dunbeath, Caithness, in North East Scotland in 1891, he began his career as a customs and excise officer at the Glen Mhor whisky distillery and wrote prolifically throughout his life. In 1937 he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Highland River. He died in 1973.
A beautiful exposition of the many virtues and varieties of Scotland's national drink -- Alan Riach He demonstrates the ability to describe traditional whisky-making practices in clear and engaging terms . . . this is a whisky book written by a writer * Scotchwhisky.com * (A) witty, indignant little book -- George Routledge & Sons PRAISE FOR NEIL M. GUNN * : * One of twentieth-century Scotland's most powerful novelists * Guardian * One of the most important Scottish writers of the twentieth century * TLS * Neil Gunn has given us a wonderful body of work - greater than Gibbon's and therefore the greatest achievement of its kind in modern Scottish literature, and since Walter Scott -- Hugh MacDiarmid His generous and incisive writing engages and enlightens us -- John Burns One of the central figures of the Scottish Literary Renaissance, and often acknowledged as the most important Scottish novelist of the early twentieth century * BBC * One of Scotland's most distinguished writers -- Light in the North Festival All his strength, his vision, his style come from his people, from the Scottish tradition, from the Gaelic past, but he applies them to the crucial questions of our time. What he has to say is a concern of all men. Scottish literature here is national, yet knows no national limitations -- Kurt Wittig, The Scottish Tradition in Literature