On 7 October 1999 Edwin Morgan was proclaimed Poet Laureate of the City of Glasgow. This is the first time the title has been used in Scotland.

On 8 October an interview between Edwin Morgan and Marshall Walker was filmed by Picardy Productions at Morgan's home in Glasgow. The interview is the basis for a television documentary feature about Morgan's life and work. The following text is extracted from the footage.

Edwin Morgan's Collected Poems (1990) and several other volumes of his work are published by Carcanet Press. Demon (1999) is published by Mariscat Press.

Marshall Walker is Professor of English at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. His books include Scottish Literature Since 1707 (1996)

MARSHALL WALKER: It's a special pleasure to be congratulating you on becoming the first City of Glasgow Poet Laureate. How do you feel about that?

EDWIN MORGAN: Well, it was an interesting surprise. It's something I see as possibly leading to a bigger sort of Laureateship for Scotland itself. It's okay having a laureate for a big city like Glasgow or Birmingham - I think they have one too - that works out reasonably well, I think, but it would be much better if it was for Scotland. With the new parliament you'd think they might put their minds to this eventually, just because the so-called UK poet laureateship is simply an English thing and it doesn't really work ...