The New Testament in Scots

WILLIAM LAUGHTON LORIMER (1885-1967) was born at Strathmartinc, near Dundee, and spent most of his life teaching, first as Lecturer in Greek at St Andrews University, then as Reader in Humanity at University College, Dundee, and finally for two years (1953-5) as Professor of Greek at St Andrews. Though best known as one of the most learned Greek scholars of his generation, he had first begun studying spoken Scots when he was only nine years old. During the last twenty years of his life, he made a substantial contribution to The Scottish National Dictionary; during the last ten, he also translated the New Testament from Greek into Scots, but had not finally revised three-quarters of his voluminous manuscripts when he died. His son R. L. C. Lorimer (1918-96), a distinguished publisher and scholar in his own right, completed the transcription and the editing of the work which was published to great acclaim in 1983

"Probably the most considerable accomplishment in Scots prose literature to have been written in hundreds of years." --"Spectator" "... With the Scots version of the New Testament the subversiveness of of the Christian message seems to be restored." Anthony Burgess