Ian Hamilton Finlay - A Memoir - Paperback

by Christopher McIntosh (Author)

This is a personal portrait of the Scottish poet and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, his life and work, by Christopher McIntosh, his friend of nearly three decades, who took part in many of his battles and campaigns. McIntosh recounts Finlay's emergence as an avant-garde writer and poet in the 1950s, the creation, together with his wife Sue, of his famous garden at his home Stonypath-Little Sparta in Lanarkshire, his espousal of the ideals of the French Revolution, his defence of classical values, his idiosyncratic form of paganism (Little Sparta was dedicated to Apollo), his struggle against what he called the "secular terror", his many battles (with the local taxation authorities, with the French cultural establishment, with publishers and with authors who misunderstood his work. In many ways he was a paradoxical figure on the cultural scene - a contemporary artist who opposed modern culture and fiercely upheld tradition, in other words a kind of radical traditionalist. Having been seen by many as an enfant terrible, he was in his later years f ted by the establishment, given honorary doctorates and an honorary professorship, awarded a CBE and hailed as Scotland's greatest artist. Today he has a world-wide reputation, and in 2004 a panel of artists and arts professionals voted the garden at Stonypath-Little Sparta the most important work of Scottish art. This lively personal tribute is a must for Finlay scholars and admirers.

Author Biography

Christopher McIntosh was born in England in 1943 and grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. He studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford and German at London University, later returning to Oxford to take a doctorate in history with a dissertation on the Rosicrucian revival in the context of the German Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment. After working in London in journalism and publishing he spent four years in New York as an information officer with the United Nations Development Programme, then moved to Germany to work for UNESCO. In parallel he has pursued a career as a writer and researcher specialising in the esoteric traditions. His books include The Astrologers and their Creed (1969); Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival (1972); The Rosicrucians (latest edition 1997); The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason (1992), based on his D.Phil. dissertation; The Swan King: Ludwig II of Bavaria (latest edition 2003); and Gardens of the Gods (2005). His fictional work includes the occult novel Return of the Tetrad (2013) and (as co-author under the pen name of Roy Havelland) the spy thriller The Lebensborn Boy (2014). He has lectured widely and was on the faculty of the distance MA programme in Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter, England. His home is in Bremen, North Germany.