First published in 2010 to mark the centenary of Norman MacCaig’s birth, The Many Days aims to strike a balance between representing the much-loved poems that any reader would expect to find in a selected MacCaig, and other less familiar verses. The collection is arranged to show the range of the poet’s work in all its variety, from his love of nature and the landscape of the North West Highlands to his life in Edinburgh; from his care for animals and human friendship, to his moments of joy and grief, creative delight and occasional creative dread. Time and again MacCaig returns us to that good place we know as the world, but hardly ever seen so clearly as we do in these marvellous poems. ‘I have always loved the mixture of strictness and susceptibility in Norman MacCaig’s work. It is an ongoing education in the marvellous possibilities of lyric poetry . . . He means poetry to me’ – Seamus Heaney
