A Delicate Wildness: The Life and Loves of David Thomson, 1914-1988 Book

A Delicate Wildness - the Life and Loves of David Thomson, 1914-1988, is the first exploration of the contribution - and soul - of a relatively unsung but uniquely talented man. This resonant biography boasts more than 50 unseen photographs. Thomson was a Scotsman who became an honorary Irishman, writer, folklorist and radio producer. His life took a fateful turn when, while a history student at Oxford, Thomson came to County Roscommon in the early 1930s as tutor to an Anglo-Irish family. He fell in love with the daughter of the house, became a farmer and 'went native', caught up in the history and landscape of counties Roscommon and Leitrim. He wrote his first book when he was forty, The People of the Sea, an exploration of seal lore. He went on to write eleven published works including autobiographical fiction, before turning to the genre in which he most excelled - memoir: Woodbrook (1976), about his time in Ireland, is regarded as an Arcadian masterpiece and minor classic. For his final book, Nairn in Darkness and Light, he returned to the north of Scotland to meditate on childhood, and was made Scottish Writer of the Year in 1988. David Thomson had an impish grin, was wary of literati and drank with the London homeless. His friend Seamus Heaney described him as having a 'delicate wildness'.Read More