A Ring Upon the Sand

This fifth and final volume of Cunninghame Graham stories and sketches brings together the three collections he published in the last decade of his life. Redeemed, and Other Sketches appeared in 1927, followed in 1933 by Writ in Sand, and in 1936, the year of his death, by Mirages. There is a sense of winding down in the pieces presented. The characteristic Graham astringency and irony are less intense, and there is more conventional sentiment. However, some of the familiar targets for his distaste and anger are still being picked off. Graham shows himself to be fully alive to the increasingly menacing world of 1930s Europe. If he had lived, there is little doubt about where his sympathies would have lain. Graham died on the 20th March 1936. Exactly four months later, the Spanish Civil War began. "I thanked the stationmaster for his horse, unsaddled him, emptied a tin mug of water over his sweating back, and threw him down a bundle of fresh Pindo leaves to keep him occupied till he was ready for his maize. Then I strolled into the station cafe, where Exaltacion Medina, Joao Ferreira, and, I think, Enrique Clerici were playing billiards, whilst they waited for me." (Writ in Sand, "The Stationmaster's Horse"), Preface Alan MacGillivray is a specialist in Scottish Literature, who has lectured at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and is a former President of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. John C. McIntyre taught Spanish Language and Latin American Literature at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He holds a postgraduate Diploma in Scottish Literature. James N. Alison is a retired HM Inspector of Schools with specialist interests in Scottish literature, children's books and landscapes.