Music, poetry and Gaelic: Quickfire Q+A with Angus Peter Campbell

Posted on Oct 16, 2026

Join us as Angus Peter Campbell , author of Grian is Frasan, takes part in our series of quick-fire Q&As!
What is a quick-fire Q&A?
We have our interviewee pick a number at random and we ask them the general question listed next to it.
Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions, to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.

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If you could summarise your writing process in five words, what would they be?

Truth, reducing, elegance, reading and music.

If you could hypothetically be any character from any book, who would you be?

Would that include an author? Could I be F. Scott Fitzgerald? I wouldn't really want to be Gatsby, but, you know, with Fitzgerald, you know, what a brilliant book. I read it once a year just to kind of burn everything I've ever written.

If you could be anywhere right now, where would it be?

Right here, in the moment, you know – mindfulness. Or lying on the Sìthean with my wellies on.

What is something that you take everywhere with you?

A pen. And paper.

If you could invite three famous guests to dinner, dead or alive, who would they be?

The prophet Isaiah. Màiri Mhòr nan Òran. And my wife.

What would the title of your biography be?

Shin e-nise. Which means ‘there you are now.’ I remember as a child – and as an adult – when you’d visit older people in their homes they’d make you a cup of tea and a scone and as you sat there talking now and again they’d say, sort of to themselves, ‘Shin e-nise’.

I think it had to do with silence. When folk had no TVs or radios or things like that making constant noise in the background, as you sat there in the silence you’d say ‘Shin e-nise’ now and again as a confirmation of the goodness of life.

What first drew you to poetry as a form of expression?

The sound of poetry. I remember in primary school hearing,

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

I remember the teacher standing in front of us and chanting,

"'Bring forth the horse!"--the horse was brought;
In truth, he was a noble steed,
A Tartar of the Ukraine breed,
Who looked as though the speed of thought…

The rhythm went Dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum, which I loved – the music of poetry, as much as the content.

How did you decide which poems to include in this collection?

The ones that felt true and real and authentic. Which as a consequence made them a body of work, rather than individual things.

What do you hope readers take away from the collection as a whole?

Just how astonishing and marvellous and strange their own lives are, and all our lives are.

What ideas or emotions lie at the heart of the collection?

I suppose love – and regret. And the older you get, I think you realise how much more generous you could have been.

Do you enjoy hearing how others interpret your poems, even if it's different from your own intent?

It depends who they are. As a reader, you know, it's up to the reader or listener to embrace or reject what's there. I’m fairly cautious of critics. I'm not sure they always read the poems as poems, but as something else, which has got nothing to do with the poem.