The cast of Not Dark Yet are John Herdman’s contemporaries and friends, his students and readers. This celebration of John Herdman is witness to the strength of admiration that exists for this Scottish writer’s work, a body of writing that extends over a period of seven decades. And seven decades is impressive — especially for a man who is only just turning eighty. Published to mark John Herdman's 80th birthday in 2021. * Writers, academics, publishers and literary figures from Britain, Europe and North America came together to celebrate Scottish novelist and critic, John Herdman.

Table of Contents:
D. M. Black The Background of a Friendship 11 Valerie Gillies For John Herdman 19 Hugh Gilbert Pluscarden Abbey 20 Regi Claire When Our Lives Begin 21 Craig Gibson John Herdman, a Heretical Appreciation 23 Morelle Smith A-just-about-recognisable Country 25 David Punter Five Poems 30 Jennie Renton Living Through Books 38 Alan Riach John Herdman: Sonatas on a Ghostly Grand 41 John Herdman Two Prose Poems My Stone 47 The Skein 48 Willie Archibald John Herdman in 1967, a Reminiscence 49 Marjorie Sandor Travelling to the House of Herdman 51 6 Roderick Watson Sinister Cabarets 54 Ewan Morrison List and apology attached 64 Seán Bradley Mar ná beidh ár leithéidí arís ann 71 Angus Martin In Each Secret Place 73 James Robertson ‘An Upstart with a Degree from Cambridge’ 74 Mario Relich John Herdman and his Vignettes of Scottish Poets 80 Todd McEwen Periodic Table of the [Herdman] Elements 84 Alan Mason A Visit with John Herdman 91 Sally Evans My Wife’s Lovers and Cruising: the play and the book 96 Andrew Greig Anither Fareyeweel: A Palimpsest for John 98 Margaret Bennett ‘Being Scottish …’ 100 Ron Butlin Beethoven’s Response to the Hanging Gardens of Neglect 103 Alan Taylor Bob and John 109 Tom Pow Clapperton in a Changing Scotland 112 7 Regi Claire Two Poems 117 John Burns John Herdman, Man o Mony Pairts 119 Hayden Murphy From H. to J. 125 Jonathan Penner Joseph’s Feet 127 James Aitchison Mossmen 139 Macdonald Daly An Interview with John Herdman 140 Richard Price Novella 151 Robin Fulton Macpherson Six Poems 152 David Campbell My Friend, John Herdman 155 Peter Burnett The Fork 157 Jean Berton Méditation sur la pierre et l’eau 162 Stewart Conn Doppelgänger, Scottish Poetry Library, Tweeddale Court 164 Alan Spence JH@80 165 Stuart Kelly Notes on a Rare Volume Acquired in Lilliesleaf 167 8 Richie McCaffery Dr Herdman 170 Lesley Storm Fear without loathing, and John Herdman 172 Carl MacDougall Fegs 175 Hamish Whyte Six Poems 180 Douglas Eadie An Open Letter to John 182 Ian Spring Two Poems 188 Nicholas Blyth John Macmillan Herdman 190 Michael Hollington Satiric Capri from a Hibernian Perspective 195 Trevor Royle The Watcher by the Threshold: John Herdman and the Scottish Literary Tradition 208 Walter Perrie Two Poems 227 John Herdman The Faces 229 John Herdman: Bibliography 231 Acknowledgements 243 Previously Published… 244