I will update this entry at the nearest possible time. All current information is in note form.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon was born on 13th Feburary 1901 at the small farm of Hillhead of Segget in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. After a brief and relatively unsuccessful journalistic career grassic Gibbon joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1919 at the age of 18 serving in Persia, India and Egypt, then spending a further six years as a clerk in the RAF. He married Rebecca Middleton in 1925 and became a full time writer in 1929.

Mitchell published a number of short stories and articles along with his first book, Hanno, or the Future of Exploration (1928) and a further seven novels followed under his own name; Stained Radiance (1930); The Thirteenth Disciple (1931); Three Go Back (1932); Image and Superscription (1933); The Lost Trumpet (1932); Spartacus (1933); and Gay Hunter (1934).

Mitchell also collaborated with Hugh MacDiarmid to make Scottish Scene, which cintained three of Mitchell's best short stories, later to be collected in A Scots Hairst (1969).

Sunset Song was the first novel in the triology, A Scots Quair, which comprised Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite written between 1932 and 1934, this now termed Mitchell's finest work was when James Leslie Mitchell chose to adopt the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon, adapted from names of his mother's and grandmother's families.

James Leslie Mitchell was plagued by stomach trouble towards the end of his life brought on, he said, by "years of army food", he died of peritnitis following an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer at the age of thirty-four in 1935.

An unfinished novel, The Speak of the Mearns, was published in 1982.

Sunset Song

"Nothing Endures" and this is the main theme in Lewis Grassic Gibbon's "Sunset Song". Nothing endures but the land, friends come and go as do loved one, we all grow up and a breed of men dies out but still the land is the same.

Based in the fictional Scottish town of Kinraddie Sunset Song follows the maturing of the main character Chris Guthrie and the trials and tribulations of her life. Formatted into six chapters each deals with a different time in Chris's life.

The Prelude - The Unfurrowed Field

The "Prelude" deals with informing the reader of what happened in the town of Kinraddie in the years prior to the arrival of the Guthrie Family, from Norman times right up to the Twentieth Century, where the lives of the characters come into play. Giving a basic history and character outline, telling the reader about the different families, their lineage and where in Kinraddie they reside. Giving information such as how Chae Strachan and his wife Kirsty were tricked into marriage, after Kirsty fell pregnant by the local doctor and he was a married man. Also the fact that during the prelude certain characters such as Ewan Tavendale, are mentioned is an indication of their importance later in the novel.

Ploughing

In chapter one, "Ploughing," we are moved 6 months on from the Prelude, to June 1911, where Chris is standing by the standing stones, this first paragraphy is in direct relation to the end of the chapter and acts as a loop, Chris is standing by the standing stones and contemplating what has been going on.

This chapter is about the preparation of the land ready for planting this is Chris's childhood and youth and getting ready for adulthood. Her family moving from the fertile soils of Echt, where they have been evicted from the farm they lived on, their journey to Kinraddie and their new home, Blawearie. Chris is at this point is only 15, and we are told about the two sides to her personality:

"So that was the college place at Duncairn, two Chrisses went there each morning, and one was right douce and studious and the other sat back and laughed a canny laugh at the antics of the teachers.

By the end of this chapter it is evident that home life at Blawearie is fraught, the distortion within John Guthrie eventually destroying his wife and driving her to murder her twin babies and commit suicide, rather than face another agonising pregnancy.

Drilling

"Drilling" reflects on the tough time Chris went through in this section, the death of her mother killing any thoughts of independance, of higher education or of the teaching career that she wishes to aspire to.

"That died, and the Chris of the books and the dreams died with it, or you folded them up in their paper of tissue and laid them away by the dark, quiet corpse that was your childhood."

When Chris's mother dies it signifies the destruction and breakdown of the Guthrie family, Will - Chris's elder brother - finds the strength to disobey his father, and break away from the family with his girlfriend Mollie Douglas. Chris's younger brothers, Alec and Dod are sent away from the family unit, just after the death of their mother, to live in Aberdeen with their, childless, Auntie Janet and Uncle Tam.

first encounter with Ewan

Seed-Time

Seedtime is significant as it symbolises when Chris becomes pregnant.

Harvest

Harvest symbolises when Chris is at her full maturity.

"Forgot all her worries remembering the days when she and Will were bairns together, and the dourness and the loveliness then"

Epilude - The Unfurrowed Field

Notes on the Prelude and Epilude

(can't be bothered writing into two section currently)

The Prelude and Epilude act as a looping devise in the structure of Sunset Song, the prelude informs the reader of what happened in Kinraddie before the Guthrie's arrival, such as Chae and Kirsty's (unwittingly arranged) marriage. The prelude tells us of the time before, the Epilude acts informs the reader of all the changes since the end of the First World War, the deaths and the engagement of Chris to the new Minister.

Both are written in a gossipy style.

The structure of the four chapters between also shows the idea of the looping effect, as at the start of each chapter Chris is at the Standing Stones and then goes into the events, which lead to her being there at the end of the chapter. The opening is actually the ending and Chris is merely recapping over what has made her go up there (her mothers death, her fight with Ewan etc)

The title of the book, Sunset Song is an important part, "Sunset" gives the impression of the sun setting on the end of an era, the end of the old ways of the farming, the end of the old way of life and introduction of machines and the end of relationships. "Song" the main song in Sunset Song was a lament called "Flowers of the Forest" and a lament is a song with looks back on the past. (Chris is looking back in each chapter at her childhood or marriage etc)