MacDiarmid: An Illustrated Biography - Tapa dura

The idea to produce and publish an illustrated account of MacDiarmid's life was conceived in the spring of 1974. A London publisher had just issued a short, illustrated biography of a prominent literary figure and when I had a chance to examine a copy of the book, I was immediately inspired to produce a more extensive work on MacDiarmid.
In June 1974 I arranged to visit MacDiarmid at his home, outlined my proposal, and asked if he would be prepared to co-operate. I had briefly described what production would entail, I was prepared to research and compile all the material necessary to produce the book if he would help to identify photographs, allow me as many interviews as required and in the summer, accompany me to his native Langholm for a photo session which would be more of a pleasure jaunt than a chore. MacDiarmid agreed.
In the autumn of 1974, free from other publishing commitments and able to make a start, I visited MacDiarmid at his home again, and we started to sift through the considerable number of photographs Mrs Grieve had carefully collected over the years. As photographs were selected, they were labelled with as much information as possible, inserted in a protective plastic sleeve and filed in a loose-leaf folder in chronological order. From this skeleton the book evolved