Scottish Writers' Centre The Burrell Story with Sally Evans

Sally Evan's poems on the story of William Burrell and his daughter took several years to complete, and that was only the research. Having visited the Burrell Collection often and researching the history of the Burrell family and their shipping line, she wrote the first section of the poems in much the way they now appear, and published them as a pamphlet in 2011. She realised there was next to no information to be found on the Burrells’ daughter Marion (1905-1992), and this part of the story remained a puzzle to her until 2014, when S.M.O Stephen, Marion’s god-daughter and Burrell family friend, published her biography Collector’s Daughter. This revealed the hitherto unpublicised dysfunctionality at the heart of the Burrell family life. This new information filled out the mystery Sally had identified, and the result is her book of poems reflecting both the main Burrell story and Marion’s extraordinary life.

Sally will consider how research affects poetry; how poetry can be based on fact, and how accuracy and research can strengthen poetic responses to a story; how writing in different personas can show perspectives of a complex story and a real story can be brought to life by poetic imagination, working with accuracy and probability in a similar way to historical fiction.

Sally is the Editor: Poetry Scotland Broadsheet, Scots Language Centre website, Keep Poems Alive blogzine, The Poetry Scotland Daily, she also hosts Callander Poetry Weekend.