Real name: Christopher Murray Grieve

Scottish poet and political activist for Scottish independence. He wrote both in English and in literary Scots (often referred to as Lallans). Born in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway, on 11th of August 1892. Died in Edinburgh 9th of September 1978.

He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century.

In 1928, MacDiarmid helped found the National Party of Scotland (forerunner of the Scottish National Party). He was also a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. During the 1930s, he was expelled from the former for being a communist and from the latter for being a nationalist.