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I was delighted to see Liz Lochhead appointed as Scots Makar yesterday, taking up the mantle from the late, great Edwin Morgan. Like her predecessor, Liz has been studied and adored in classrooms all over the country. She also follows in the illustrious footsteps of the Older Scots , Robert Henryson and William Dunbar (if you haven't heard of them, do give their poems a look, they're well worth a read!)

Anyone who's had the pleasure of hearing Liz Lochhead read her work will testify to the exuberance and passion she puts in to her performances, bringing poetry alive for children and adults alike.

It's interesting too that perhaps her best known poem, is not only about going to school, but is a critique of the attitudes towards Scots language in Scottish schools. Her final lines, 'The way it had to be said/Was as if you were posh, grown-up, male, English and dead' are a damning indictment not only of the devalued status of Scots in the classroom, but of so many strange notions of class and propriety which are also, unfortunately, tangled up with poetry.

I like the idea that working-class, young female Scottish (and very much alive!) students who may have felt poetry wasn't for them will be inspired to write by a strong role model such as Liz Lochhead. I'm sure that her audience will be far, far wider than that, but it's nonetheless great to think of the apple-cart of poetry being upset, just a wee bit. With Carol Ann Duffy, another Scottish female writer, as the it seems now's the time for young women in Scotland to get reading and writing poetry.

I'm sure we'll be hearing lots more about a certain other national poet next week, so I think it would be great if perhaps, as with a Burns Supper, schools allow Liz Lochhead's work to serve as the 'Reply from the Lassies', or, 'Reply from the 21st Century'. Indeed, the first appointment of our new Makar will be to open the new in Alloway. I hope that we learn to give our best poets better recognition while they are here, living, breathing, reading and writing among us - perhaps the classroom is the place to start.

Some extra reading:
Pauline McLean's blog on Liz Lochhead's appointment
Liz Lochhead reading some famous works of Robert Burns