Louis MacNeice (1907-63) is one of the great, unplaceable poets of the twentieth century. Born in the North of Ireland, educated in England, stirred by the turmoil of the 1930s in Germany and Spain, but also by teaching and writing in the USA, he was often on the move (later in his life between India, Ireland, Greece and Africa). In 1937, he made two apparently incidental trips to the Outer Hebrides, following in the footsteps, as it were, of Dr Johnson and Boswell. He wrote up his experiences in *I Crossed the Minch* (1938), a long-neglected book which turns out to give us crucial insights into the poet's socio-cultural orientation, political outlook, and creative make-up during a decisive phase in the development of 'Thirties Poetry'. This talk centres on *Minch* and the poetry that it includes (notably 'On those Islands' and the brilliant anthology piece, 'Bagpipe Music'), using the book to explore MacNeice's overlooked relationship with the Scottish Renaissance, especially Hugh MacDiarmid and Compton Mackenzie, and his broader engagement with the international events that preoccupied the Auden Generation. It also tracks the more inward, self-searching argument that he undertook with himself about his family's supposed peasant-Celtic origins, into and beyond the war years. The Western Isles, variously configured with the west of Ireland, emerge as a significant zone of interaction and overlap in Scottish/Irish and global cultural politics, as well as a key to unlocking the creative psyche of this remarkable writer. Barcelona, Shanghai, Athens, Stornoway!
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