My love is like an old tin bucket that’s newly sprung a leak: BBC poet takes inspiration from Oor Wullie

THE BBC’s people’s poet has revealed his inspiration and they don’t live far from Glebe Street.

Stuart A. Paterson has been signed up as BBC Scotland’s latest Poet in Residence, taking up his post on National Poetry Day on Thursday.

He’ll become a regular on Janice Forsyth’s afternoon arts show on Radio Scotland.

The Ayrshire-born former social care worker says his earliest memories are of his cartoon strip favourites. “I’m a child of The Sunday Post and was so influenced by the poetry in it,” said Stuart, 51, who now lives in Dumfries and Galloway.

“The wee couplets at the top of Oor Wullie and The Broons were massive for me. How can you not be influenced as a poet by them?

“Growing up and reading stuff written in Scots in a mainstream news-paper was a big thing as a wean. I was getting told off at school for speaking that way.

“I got the annuals from my mum Mima at Christmas every year. She’s 87 and she still gets me them now and I still love them.”

Stuart will also work to bring poetry to schools and children during his four-month residency which ends on Burn’s Night in January. “It’s all about bringing poetry to the people and making it more accessible.”

Janice Forsyth agreed and said: “I think audiences are going to love hearing the way Stuart reflects on the changing world in which we live.”

Stuart lived in Manchester for 14 years, many of them working in children’s homes. It was such a tough environment that his writing took a back seat for some of the time.

“The backgrounds of some of these kids is harrowing,” he said.

“You’re always trying to prepare them for a life outside of care. Of course it affects you though. You’d have to be inhuman for it not to.”

Stuart writes in both Scots and English and his latest book, Looking South, is just out. His previous book, Border Lines, was published after he was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship by the Scottish Book Trust.