p. 90 ‘Angus was an interesting character . . . he wore them on top of welly boots.’ Interview with author, 2010
p. 90 ‘Sometimes you would meet him . . . you just feel he’s still around here.’ Hidden Gifts, directed by Nick Higgins, 2004
p. 91 ‘Have you seen the way . . . together with the thinner plait.’ Interview with the author, 2010
pp. 91–92 ‘And then it all vanished . . . we never found anything like that. But I’d have loved to . . .’ Interview with the author, 2011
p. 92 ‘So he sat on the edge of his bed . . . the sheep marking on it – it gave a punch to it, you know.’ Interview with the author, 2011
p. 93 ‘I never heard him speak . . . look straight in front of him.’ Interview with the author, 2011
pp. 94–95 ‘preaching alternately in English . . . their appreciation of it.’ Craig Dunain Hospital, Inverness, One Hundred Years, 1864– 1964, Martin M. Whittet, Inverness 1964
pp. 95–96 ‘I’ve known him for 30 years . . . hope to carry on.’ Tacsi, BBC television programme by MacTV, 1997
p. 96 ‘When I became a councillor . . . should ever have been in there.’ Interview with author, 2008
p. 97 ‘I have never met a set of people . . . could fill up the gap without half trying.’ Unpublished letter to Dr Alasdair Maclean, 1951
p. 98 ‘In Gaelic, the language of the Hebrides . . . ripple with the never-ceasing wind.’ Tir a’ Mhurain, photographs by Paul Strand, commentary by Basil Davidson, Leipzig 1962
CHAPTER FIVE A RARE STATE OF PURITY
p. 104 ‘He always allows himself . . . almost as a spectator . . .’ Artistry of the mentally ill, Hans Prinzhorn, Germany 1922
pp. 106–107 ‘I am not afraid to put forward . . . we thirst more and more each day.’ Outsider Art, Roger Cardinal, New York 1972
p. 110 ‘ “Look,” said McGrath . . . see what we can find in a week.”’ Interview with Joyce Laing by author, 2011
pp. 111–116 ‘There were only about 12 of us . . . anywhere else in Scotland.’ Interview with Joyce Laing by author, 2011
p. 117 ‘To some it was a legendary institution . . . never allowed to happen again and considered best forgotten.’ ‘Creative Arts and the Cultural Politics of Penal Reform: the early years of the Barlinnie Special Unit, 1973–1981’, Mike Nellis, in Journal of Scottish Criminal Justice Studies, Volume 20, 2010
pp. 118–122 ‘We’d start at the north . . . So that was the discovery of Angus.’ Interview with Joyce Laing by author, 2011
p. 125 ‘There was a lot of interest . . . the two exhibitions,’ Interview with author, 2011
p. 125 ‘I was a bit worried . . . Then I knew it was safe.’ Interview with author, 2011
p. 126 ‘Art Extraordinary refers to . . . disabled or have mental health issues.’ Joyce Laing, www.artextraordinarytrust.co.uk
CHAPTER SIX THE RELUCTANT EXHIBITOR
pp. 129–130 ‘I saw him work . . . “Can we help?’”’ Interview with Joyce Laing by author, 2011
p. 131 ‘He told me there . . . Craig Dunain hospital,’ Hidden Gifts, directed by Nick Higgins, 2004
p. 131 ‘The farm was closed . . . he started using beech leaves . . .’ Interview with Joyce Laing by author, 2011
p. 131 ‘He took and overlapped . . . didn’t last as long as grass.’ Interview with Joyce Laing by author, 2011
p. 132 ‘I think it’s incredibly brave . . . remit is to work with nature as a whole.’ Daily Telegraph, 2007
p. 133 ‘would promise my father that she would bring him home.’ Hidden Gifts, directed by Nick Higgins, 2004
pp. 133–134 ‘So I asked my mother . . . his horse. He was happy.’ Interview with author, 2011
p. 135 ‘I went back with the car . . . he was almost blind.’ Interview with author, 2011
p. 135 ‘They said, “It’s about Angus MacPhee . . . Where do you want Angus?” ’ Interview with author, 2011
p. 138 ‘must be one of the most . . . devised by a government.’ Henry’s Demons, Patrick and Henry Cockburn, London 2011
p. 138 ‘Prison like many of the old asylums . . . or even madly without derision or persecution.’ Henry’s Demons, Patrick and Henry Cockburn, London 2011
pp. 141–142 ‘The first day after he came back we let him go out . . . But even as a youngster he was very quiet.’ Interview with author, 2010
p. 143 ‘We had a phone call . . . You’ll have me crying next.’ Hidden Gifts, directed by Nick Higgins, 2004
p. 144 ‘He wouldn’t go . . . it would turn into compost outside in the bushes . . .’ Interview with author, 2010
CHAPTER SEVEN ANOTHER AGE
pp. 146–147 ‘It is part of the mission . . . to struggle to maintain it.’ Inner Necessity exhibition catalogue, Edinburgh 1996
p. 147 ‘Is creativity sometimes liberated . . . for the human spirit.’ Inner Necessity exhibition catalogue, Edinburgh 1996
pp. 147–148 ‘An exhibition of the work . . . but I am richer for having seen it.’ Margaret McCartney, the Guardian, 2004
p. 148 ‘I could see at first hand . . . disabled and disadvantaged individuals.’ Email to the author, 2011
pp. 148–149 ‘I walked into the main exhibition area . . . struggle and permanent partnership.’ Angus MacPhee, Weaver of Grass, Joyce Laing, Lochmaddy 2000
p. 151 ‘Many people of Angus MacPhee’s generation . . . not just grass that we were insuring.’ Email to the author, 2011
p. 153 ‘They did an exhibition . . . They know what they’re doing in Lausanne!’ Interview with author, 2011
p. 156 ‘On one occasion . . . the source of that cry.’ Email to the author, 2011
pp. 156–157 ‘The book uses 12 stories . . . which the children were fascinated by . . .’ Email to the author, 2011
p. 157 ‘Scotland is so slow . . . discover Angus MacPhee, in time . . .’ Interview with author, 2010
pp. 161–162 ‘You must not laugh at us Celts . . . worn itself out in mistaking dreams for realities.’ Recollections of My Youth, Ernest Renan, Paris 1884
pp. 162–163 ‘Balance, measure, and patience . . . the prolonged dealings of spirit with matter, he has never had patience for.’ On the study of Celtic literature, part IV, London 1867
pp. 163–164 ‘Once every people in the world . . . forgotten the ancient religion.’ The Celtic Element in Literature, William Butler Yeats, London 1897
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRINTED SOURCES
Arnold, Matthew On the study of Celtic literature, part IV, London 1867
Cardinal, Roger Outsider Art, New York 1972
Carmichael, Alexander Carmina Gadelica, Ortha nan Gaidheal, Edinburgh 1900
Cockburn, Patrick and Henry Henry’s Demons, London 2011
Encyclopaedia Britannica, London 2011
Evidence taken by Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry into the conditions of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, London, 1884
Fraser, George MacDonald Quartered Safe Out Here, London 1992
Groome’s Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, Edinburgh 1882
Hutchinson, Roger Polly, Edinburgh, 1990
Inner Necessity exhibition catalogue, Edinburgh 1996
Laing, Joyce Angus MacPhee Weaver of Grass, Lochmaddy 2000
Lawson, Bill Croft History, Isle of South Uist, Volume 2, Isle of Harris 1991
Linklater, Eric The Northern Garrisons, London 1941
MacKenzie, W.C. History of the Outer Hebrides, London 1903
MacLellan, Angus The Furrow Behind Me, introduced and translated from Gaelic by John Lorne Campbell, Edinburgh 1997
Martin, Martin A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, London 1703
Melville, Michael Leslie The Story of the Lovat Scouts, 1900–1980, Moray, 2004
Prinzhorn, Hans Artistry of the mentally ill, Germany 1922
Ragon, Michel Dubuffet, New York, 1959
Rea, Frederick A School in South Uist, London 1964
Renan, Ernest Rec
ollections of my Youth, Paris 1884
Report of the Royal Commission to inquire into the condition of Lunatic Asylums in Scotland, and the existing state of the law in that country in reference to Lunatics and Lunatic Asylums, London 1857
Sargant, William and Eliot Slater, assisted by Desmond Kelly An introduction to physical methods of treatment in psychiatry, Edinburgh 1972
Shaw, Margaret Fay Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist, Oxford 1955
Shaw, Margaret Fay From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides, Edinburgh, 1993
Strand, Paul, commentary by Basil Davidson Tir a’ Mhurain, Leipzig 1962
Whittet, Martin M Craig Dunain Hospital, Inverness, One Hundred Years, 1864–1964, Inverness 1964
Williamson, Kenneth The Atlantic Islands. A Study of the Faeroe Life and Scene, London 1948
Yeats, William Butler The Celtic Element in Literature, London 1897
OTHER MEDIA AND SOURCES
Hidden Gifts, directed by Nick Higgins, 2004
Tacsi, by MacTV, 1997
Raigmore Hospital Reference Library, Inverness
Scotland’s People website - www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
The Army Personnel Centre, MS Support Division, Historical Disclosures Section, Brown Street, Glasgow
‘A wet desert of white sand, seaweed and rock’ – looking towards Benbecula from the MacPhees’ croft in South Uist
Two Uist crofters in 1960 with a coil of heather rope (Dr Kenneth Robertson)
Leaving his mark on his land: Angus MacPhee’s initials, lovingly carved on an outcrop of gneiss before he went to war.
The last of the horse soldiers: Angus leaving Uist on his ‘fine gelding’ in September 1939
The grand Victorian sprawl of Inverness District Lunatic Asylum, later Craig Dunain Hospital, early in the 20th century
Angus MacPhee: ‘He wouldn’t talk to anyone in the ward. He would ... start gathering all the different things that, you know, the grasses, and then he would weave them. He did it, and that was that.’
Sowing pouches woven by Angus from grass (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
Horse’s harness (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
Faded and misshapen by time, Angus’s giant grass and wildflower sweater (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
A grass creel or pouch (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
A wader, as worn in its more usual waterproof form by anglers in Highland lochs (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
A rope of grass and beech leaves (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
A pair of grass and flower boots, ‘like three-dimensional drafts of a still life by Van Gogh’ (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
A pair of ‘large but perfectly functional’ beech-leaf sandals (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
‘Nurses say he sometimes chooses not to reply to people. He looks after his own needs. He is very clean and tidy. He reads newspapers’ (Tim Neat/Joyce Laing)
Joyce Laing: ‘Once I said, I want a hat, Angus. Make me a hat. And of course he ignored me as he always did. I went away and had lunch and so on, went back and he wasn’t there. He’d gone away somewhere in the grounds. But he’d left what he was working on, and there was this Davy Crockett hat …’ (Joyce Laing)
Joyce Laing in the grounds of Craig Dunain, wearing a pony halter made of beech leaves and holding the grass wader (Joyce Laing)
Joyce Laing and Angus MacPhee in Uist House, 1996 (Tim Neat/Joyce Laing)
Other Scottish Outsider Art – one of the enigmatic stone heads of Adam Christie (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
Mrs Flora Johnstone’s shell bus in Iochdar, South Uist, as it began to disintegrate in 1990 (Neil King)
Flora Johnstone’s raw materials: sea-shells glued into the lids of storage jars (Norman MacLeod/Taigh Chearsabhagh)
Rest and peace, within sight of the marram grass dunes and a few yards from the western ocean
The Silent Weaver Page 17