Poems and Songs'
- Reference:GB 254 MS 103/3/6/1
- Dates of Creation:[c. 1966]
- Physical Description:1 book
Scope and Content
Notebook, Brooksbank, Mary. [Poems and Songs]. Manuscript. [Dundee]. [c1935-1955]. [119pp] Index at front. Lined cardboard-covered exercise book in cloth-bound slip case, made by Catherine Kinnear. The volume includes all, or practically all of the poems included in Sidlaw Views, Dundee, 1966, with some corrections and corrected versions. It would appear that this item was a back-up copying of her poems in her handwriting and there is internal evidence that it was used in the preparation of the original edition of the book. Mary Brooksbank, nee Soutar (c1898-1978) was a mill girl, "in service" for a time, a political activist, a singer, violinist and poet. She lived in Dundee from the age of 8 or 9 and was largely self-educated, having left school at 11. A long-time member of the Communist Party, she was expelled from it after attacking Stalin. Through her later years she entertained widely in the locality, singing, reciting her poetry, appearing often on TV and radio. In 1966 her book of poems Sidlaw Views appeared, and in 1972 her autobiography "No sae lang syne: a tale of this city". In 1982, four years after her death, another edition of Sidlaw Views was issued with an introduction by D. Phillips, published by David Winter & Son, Dundee. In this introduction, Mr Phillips, who had interviewed Mrs Brooksbank, says that just after the Second World War when she had to stay at home to look after her mother, she would recite her Scots-English poems to her mother who urged her to write them down. This she did in "a large ledger". Some time later, Ewan MacColl, giving a concert at the Caird Hall, complained of a lack of good songs from and about Dundee. Mary Brooksbank contacted him and this was the beginning of her real career as an entertainer. Her songs were also to be recorded by artists throughout the world. On one previous occasion she had learnt something of her ability when shortly before her husband's death (in 1943) when he was ill and there was no money coming in, she had secretly gone out to sing in the street in Tayport. For ten years the ledger was out of her hands "with a folk singer" (possibly Ewan MacColl?). The poems of Mary Brooksbank deal not only with life in the mill on a humorous and realistic level but with social justice, the waste of war (she lost three brothers as a result of the two world wars), topical themes, political events and figures, various authors and the beauty of literature (she was a great reader), of nature and her love for it.
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Archivist's Note
Description compiled by Patrick Adamson, Archives Volunteer, September 2014.
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Additional Information
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