'How Sunset Song's Chris Guthrie was inspired by my grandmother'

Sunset Song has been widely acclaimed as one of Scotland’s most popular novels since it was written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon in the early 1930s.

An unflinching but lyrical account of life in the Mearns during the First World War, it features a truly great female leading character in Chris Guthrie.

Yet, while Chris was the product of Gibbon’s fertile imagination, she was also inspired by the author’s friendship with a remarkable north-east poet and Doric champion Jean Baxter, to whom the book is dedicated.

She was gifted in her own right

This redoubtable woman was born into a farming family in Aberdeenshire at the end of the 19th century and grew up in Echt surrounded by agriculture and animals, amid the rolling hills, resplendent skies and harsh winters which were part of rural existence.

But, even after being exiled by marriage to the south of England, she turned to vernacular poetry to recapture the people and places of her childhood.

And, after her volume of Doric verse A’ Ae ‘Oo’ was published in 1928, it not only gained her a significant literary reputation, but was the catalyst for her meeting James Leslie Mitchell – or, as he was more commonly known, Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

Jean Baxter loved life growing up on a farm in north east Scotland. Image supplied by Alison Baxter.

Jean was somebody with a vivid imagination and a penchant for expressing herself either in poetry or prose from an early age. Born in Aboyne in 1886, the youngest of four children, she was a bright, inquisitive child who never lost these qualities.

She recalled, for instance, the day Lord George Sanger’s circus came to Huntly in 1890 and she marvelled at the procession of elephants, camels, caravans and cages which went through the town to advertise the show.

She was observant from an early age

But, as Jean recalled: “In the vanguard was a gold chariot with a drab-looking lion reclining on top and I faintly associate with him the vision of a lady with a helmet.

“The lion’s moth-eaten whiskers and dull eyes were a great disappointment to me.”

Aboyne-born Jean Baxter was close friends with author Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Pic supplied by Alison Baxter.

Alison Baxter’s new work Another Song at Sunset chronicles the life of her grandmother with poignancy, power and profound interest in its subject matter.

Jean emerges as a multi-faceted woman, somebody who spent most of her life in England without forgetting her roots or losing her accent, but who suffered the passing of family and those close to her, including Grassic Gibbon who died at just 33 in 1935.

It taught her only the land endures

He had urged her to write a novel, but she demurred. Instead, she penned her poems, which were well regarded in many quarters, and remained stoical, aloof, detached.

As with Chris, she was convinced human life was ephemeral and only the land endured. And that sentiment filters through the pages of her granddaughter’s superb biography.

Alison Baxter has written a new book “Another Song at Sunset” about her grandmother Jean.

Alison said: “I’ve always been fascinated by history and had a long-standing ambition to be a writer. When I retired, I was fortunate to be able to pursue both these interests by enrolling on an MA in creative writing, specialising in biography and non-fiction.

“I believe we can often get a better feel for the past by exploring the lives of ordinary people, rather than just the famous ones who get all the attention. And I’m a big fan of David Olusoga’s TV series A House Through Time.

‘I wanted to write about Jean’

“The biggest collection of papers and photos I inherited came from my grandmother. This included a copy of the typescript she had deposited with the archives of Aberdeen University, describing her friendship with Leslie Mitchell (Lewis Grassic Gibbon).

“Several people told me that I should make it a book about him, because he was the famous name, but I am more interested in the forgotten lives of the past.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon created the classic Sunset Song in 1932, three years before his death at just 33.

“My grandmother paints a vivid picture of a rural childhood in the 1890s that echoes the vanishing agricultural society depicted in Sunset Song and will surely appeal to anyone who wants to get a feeling for life in Aberdeenshire in those days.

“When I sought permission from the Mitchell estate to quote from unpublished letters, I was encouraged by the reaction of [renowned Mitchell scholar] Dr William Malcolm.

“He told me that he had read the first part of my book with as much interest and enjoyment as the second part, where Leslie Mitchell appears.

Sunset Song was set across the Mearns during the First World War.

“Jean was a published poet and a keen champion of the Doric language. Her book of Doric verse was widely reviewed and praised for its authenticity back in the 1920s.

“In her will [she died in 1968], she left a bequest to Echt School to fund a prize for writing in the Doric.

The poems are important works

“She and her brother, who wrote as Barrowsgate, are two important sources of citations in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language.

“Informal feedback from friends encouraged me to reprint Jean’s poems as part of my book, so they can reach a new audience of people interested in the Scots language.”

Alison Baxter has written a compelling new book “Another Song at Sunset” about her grandmother.

Vivien Heilbron, who played Chris in the BBC’s 1971 adaptation of Sunset Song, said there was a universality about the novel which impacted on many different places.

She added: “I still remember talking to somebody in Greece and he was raving about the book and I asked him why. He replied: ‘It tells the story of peasants the world over’ and I understood exactly what he meant.

The book had a global message

“What was wonderful was that Grassic Gibbon was very specific about the countryside, the people and the language of the Mearns, but his message wasn’t remotely parochial.

“On the contrary, there was a timeless quality to what he wrote, which is why he is remembered and held in such high regard.”

Alison Baxter has relished uncovering the story of her grandmother Jean.

Alison’s endeavours deserve a wide audience. They do more than merely highlight the links between her gran and Grassic Gibbon. They demonstrate how two exiles, in body if not in spirit, were instrumental in creating a classic for the ages.

And even if Jean remains an elusive figure – Mitchell once told her: ‘You’re not quite real. I think you’re putting on an act’ – her spirit is captured to perfection.

Something powerful about her

As Alison said: “I’m proud of the fact that there is something of my own grandmother in Chris. Certainly, they share a deep love of north east Scotland, which also comes across in my grandmother’s poetry.

“I can see why so many prominent Scots, from Ali Smith to Nicola Sturgeon, have said that Sunset Song is their favourite book and Chris their favourite character.

Jean Baxter grew up in rural Aberdeenshire, but moved to the south of England in her later years.

“But Chris is more than a great Scottish character. There is something very powerful about her story, which resonates beyond the place and time where her story is set.

“She is a complex personality whose life is shown as extending beyond the traditional happy ending which was given to other strong female characters such as Elizabeth Bennet [in Pride and Prejudice] and Jane Eyre.