Bruce Anderson

Is there a clean joke for Burns Night? I asked Cecil Parkinson…

British Railways poster commemorating the Bi-Centenary of the Birth of Scotland's National Poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) surrounded by characters and places from his poems Photo: SSPL via Getty Images 
issue 18 January 2014

As a life, it was a scintillating spectrum of the human condition. There was hardship and suffering, as well as laughter and fun, plus a great deal of sex, mostly extra-canonical. There were large, even universal perspectives, but also a fey and complex personality which did not sit easily with coherence.

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