SCOTLAND'S exam chiefs have been branded "crazy" for removing the nation's greatest living poet from the reading list for Advanced Higher English.
Edwin Morgan, the Scots Makar whose verse has been described as "dynamic, brilliant and freewheeling", has been on the list since the qualification was introduced seven years ago.
But Scotland on Sunday can reveal that when the Scottish Qualificat
ions Authority (SQA) introduced a new reading list last year they quietly, and without explanation, dropped Morgan.
The SQA has also removed works by Scottish poet Douglas Dunn and playwrights James Bridie and Sue Glover and ditched Muriel Spark's classic The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie.
Critics of the list complain it lacked contemporary work by living authors and failed to deal with difficult social issues. The Advanced Higher reading list prescribes works of drama, poetry and prose from which students pick the writers they want to study.
Morgan, who is the first Scots Makar and has written hundreds of poems on a wide range of modern subjects, has been a favourite with school pupils since he started publishing poetry in the 1960s.
His poems are renowned for their frank and varied subjects, such as 'The Billy Boys', which deals with gang warfare in Glasgow, 'In The Snackbar', which is about a blind man, and 'The Unspoken', which confronts the issue of gay love. Morgan came out as a homosexual on his 70th birthday in 1990.
In 1999, Morgan became the Glasgow poet laureate, and in 2004 he became the Scots Makar, beginning his tenure by writing 'The Poem For The Opening Of The Scottish Parliament'.
Morgan's publisher, the professor of poetry at Glasgow University, Michael Schmidt, said he did not know Morgan had been dropped.
He said: "I'm shocked that Morgan has been knocked off the list. He is the most loved poet living in Scotland and I cannot understand why this decision has been made."
Hamish White, Morgan's biographer, said he was flabbergasted by the move. He said: "You could have the suspicion that the subjects Morgan deals with might lead the powers that be to change (the list], but I don't see how you can miss him out."
Robyn Marsack, director of the Scottish Poetry Library, said: "I'm sorry that a generation of students won't be encouraged to explore Morgan's poetry in depth. The range of his subject matter and styles gives readers a vast panorama of possibilities for study and enjoyment."
Scottish writer Liz Lochhead, whose work is on the Advanced Higher English reading list, pointed out her play, Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, was not even in print. "Morgan is the poet who has dealt with all kinds of things in modern life, from science to space travel to the city of Glasgow. It does seem crazy to take him off a list of things that people would be expected to know about."
An SQA spokesman said: "It would be entirely untrue to say that Edwin Morgan is being ignored, banned or dropped from Advanced Higher English.
"Students at Advanced Higher level have a completely free choice of authors and texts for the specialist study element of the course which counts for almost half of the marks. If candidates wish to study the works of Edwin Morgan – and many do – then they can. Edwin Morgan could well be restored when next the list is refreshed."
