Hugh Douglas, whose biography of Burns, The Tinder Heart, looks at
his many love affairs, said that the Church gave the poet problems. He once
appeared before the church Kirk for fornication. Fortunately there were
moderates who he could get on with. This liberal wing of the Church received his
support, while the old style traditional Calvinists felt the weight of his
satire. Douglas endorses the view that supportive critics and biographers of
Burns have skated over the question of his philandering - he had as many as nine
children, many of them illegitimate. The lassies would turn Burns's heart to
tinder and he wrote exquisite love poetry about them. Douglas writes, 'surely it
can never be said that he is grave in the act of lovemaking and certainly he
does not lack conviction. Robert Burns approached sex with gusto, which came
from the very soul of the man, and he was always in love with the girl who was
his current partner.'
The historian also felt that Burns was so charismatic that he got on with and
was accepted by everyone, from the country lads on the farms to the Edinburgh
cognoscenti. People accepted him for what he was and loved him for it.
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Robert Burns: The Tinder Heart
Attitudes to sex have changed since Burns' time, passing through the
prim, censorious 19th century, to move slowly towards the more open
attitudes of the 21st. In writing about Burns, his women and the
influence of love on his poetry, biographers have followed the mores of
their own day, rather than his. Consequently, for two centuries his sex
life has been denied and glossed over, even though it was the real
catalyst for so much of his poetry and songs. In all this the real
Robert Burns has been lost. This title aims to explore the life of the
real Robert Burns.
The
Flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie
By Hugh
Douglas and Michael J. Stead
Chronicles the flight of the Pretender after Culloden - complemented by
gorgeous photos of the Scottish countryside.
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