Short Walks on Private Land

This collection consists of poems written by Marcus Grant over a fifty-year period. They are mainly set in Scotland (where he was born and grew up) England (where he went to university and lived for twenty years) Western Europe (which he visited frequently and where he lived for ten years) the United States (where he lived and worked for another twenty years) and further afield (based on extensive travels in other parts of the world). Although some of the poems have been previously published or broadcast, the collection brings together for the first time a cohesive sense of a journey from early years through a life spanning several continents and including two marriages, four daughters and other loves. The title of the collection reflects the form of the poems (mainly short, a sprinkling of sonnets) as well as their content (glimpses of intimate encounters, relationships and epiphanies). Marcus Grant is also the author of a number of short stories and television scripts, a novel Committed Agent published under the pseudonym Tom Gilchrist, and has written or edited around a dozen books on international alcohol research and policy.