Marion Cleland Lochhead

Marion Cleland Lochhead MBE (19 April 1902 - 19 January 1985) was a Scottish writer and social historian.^[1] Her works span historiography and biography, poetry and fiction, children's writing, journalism, and broadcasting.^[2]

Marion Lochhead was born 19 April 1902 in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, the daughter of Helen Watt and Alexander Lochhead, a draper and clothier.^[1]

In 1923, she graduated in English Literature and Latin (MA) from the University of Glasgow.^[1] Initially, Lochhead worked as a schoolteacher, turning to poetry and writing in the 1920s.^[1][2] Lochhead said 'I began as a poet, with an increasing interest in biography and social and domestic history'.^[3]

Her strong Christian beliefs are often reflected in her works.^[1][2]

Lochhead is rarely associated with the Scottish Renaissance, though she was an active member of Edinburgh's literary scene in her younger years.^[2]

In 1927, Lochhead co-founded the Scottish PEN (association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists), along with writers including Hugh MacDiarmid and Helen B. Cruickshank.^[4]

From the 1930s, Lochhead was a key contributor to the Scottish press, publishing in titles including The Scotsman, Glasgow Herald, Scottish Home and Country, Scottish Field, Weekend Scotsman, Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine.^[2]

In her later life, she gave interviews on BBC Radio Scotland.^[2]

In 1955, Lochhead was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL).^[1][2]

In 1963, she was awarded an MBE.^[1][2]

• Poems (1928).
• Painted Things (1929).
• Feast of Candlemas and Other Devotional Poems (1937).
• Fiddler's Bidding (1939).

• Anne Dalrymple (1934).
• Cloaked in Scarlet (1935).
• Adrian Was A Priest (1936).
• Island Destiny (1936).
• The Dancing Flower (1938).

• The Scots Household in the Eighteenth Century (1948).
• The First Ten Years: Victorian Childhood (1956).
• Young Victorians (1959).
• The Victorian Household (1964).
• Portrait of the Scott Country (1968).
• Episcopal Scotland in the Nineteenth Century (1966).
• The Renaissance of Wonder in Children's Literature (1977).

• John Gibson Lockhart (1954).
• Elizabeth Rigley, Lady Eastlake (1961).

• On Tintock Tap (1946).
• The Other Country: Legends and Fairytales of Scotland (1978).
• Scottish Tales of Magic and Mystery (1978).
• The Battle of the Birds: And Other Celtic Tales (1981).
• Magic and Witchcraft of the Borders (1984).