Iain Crichton Smith was born on the 1st January 1928 in Glasgow, and moved to Lewis two years later with his parents, both of Highland origin, and his two brothers. His father died shortly afterwards, and he and his brothers were brought up by his mother in rather frugal conditions in the crofting community of Bayble. It is frequently stated that he was born on Lewis, but his first two years were spent in Glasgow, a fact he refers to in his writing.

He went to school in Stornoway, attending the Nicholson Institute, and his formative years in Lewis proved to be a lasting influence on his creative work, in particular the Free Presbyterian strand that permeates much of island life, which he saw as dogmatic and authoritarian, even anti-art. In an early piece of work, ‘Poem of Lewis’, Smith tells us that ‘They have no place for the fine graces/ of poetry.’

Also, the community in which he grew up was Gaelic-speaking, so that English was his second language, first learned at school. This bilingualism is also an important feature of his work, additionally allowing him to translate the work of other Gaelic poets including Duncan Ban McIntyre and Sorley MacLean, as well as employ both languages in his own compositions.

He attended the University of Aberdeen, where he read English, graduating in 1949, and after a spell of National Service in the fifties, went on to become an English teacher, taking up posts in high schools in Clydebank, Dumbarton, and finally Oban. In 1977 he retired to concentrate full-time on writing, and in the same year he married Donalda Logan.

Smith was honoured with an OBE in 1980, won several literary prizes, Saltire Society and Scottish Arts Council awards and fellowships, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen. Although he travelled frequently, lecturing, visiting and giving poetry readings around the world, he remained very much a writer based in the Highlands of Scotland, with Gaelic culture, history and landscape ubiquitously informing his work. He continued to live in the village of Taynuilt, near Oban, with his wife Donalda, until his death in 1998.