Former Makar Liz Lochhead opens up about losing husband

A FORMER Scots Makar who lost her husband just months before taking on the role has spoken of her grief during a radio interview.

Liz Lochhead, who was Scotland’s national poet between 2011 and 2016, told of how she used memories of her time with husband Tom to inspire some of her work.

The 69-year-old had been with Tom, an architect, for 24 years when he died in June 2010 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Just six months later, she took up the role of Scotland’s Makar.

Liz said: “I wasn’t sure if I could do it and I spoke to my sister and she said, ‘What would Tom say?’”

“I never ever wanted to write about grief, but as part of the Makardom I would be asked to do all kinds of things.”

The Motherwell poet said she was inspired to write about her memories with Tom when she was asked to work on a poem for the National Book League.

But, she admitted, sometimes it is difficult to recite when she is asked to read it aloud.

She explained: “I was asked to write a poem about a favourite place. I wrote about places Tom and I went to. I ended up writing about things we would do, what was not happening.

“Now people speak to me about it all the time and tell me their sad stories.

“So I’m glad that poem (Favourite Place) was helpful to people but sometimes at poetry readings people ask me to read it, and I can’t.”

She made the comments during an interview for BBC4’s Desert Island Discs programme.

Along with the difficulties she had following his death, Liz also shared fond, and even risque, memories about the pair’s relationship, which started when she was 38.

Radio presenter Kirsty Young described their meeting as a “kiss on Hogmanay”, but Liz joked: “It was a bit more than that.”

She recalled meeting the Queen in 2015 when she was presented with the Gold Medal for Poetry and said she found the monarch “funny”.

Liz said the gong was a “fantastic surprise” and added: “The Queen was very funny. She told me about meeting Edith Sitwell when she was young and how she and her sister went to poetry readings when she was far too young.

“She said ‘Margaret and I were quite naughty, we got the giggles’, and she asked Carol Ann Duffy and I at the time, did we ever get giggles in poetry readings?

“We both looked at each other and said, ‘Yes’.”

During her time as Scotland’s national poet, Liz went on more than 300 engagements including school workshops and prison visits.

She also represented Scotland as an ambassador of poetry across the world and holds honorary degrees from 10 different universities.

The Makar role was established by the Scottish Government in 2004, and was first taken up by Edwin Morgan until his death in 2010.

Alex Salmond met with former First Minister Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish in January 2011, and Liz was appointed days later.

At the time, Mr Salmond described her as having the “ability to reach all ages and touch both sexes through her writing”.

He added that she had been “immensely successful at championing the Scots language”.

In March 2016, Jackie Kay took over the post after an announcement by Nicola Sturgeon.

She was chosen from a shortlist of some of Scotland’s most talented literary experts.