Burns Night is going green. World-renowned Burns Supper Specialist (and Scot in London) Clark McGinn brings this uniquely Scottish celebration...

Burns Night is going green. World-renowned Burns Supper Specialist (and Scot in London) Clark McGinn brings this uniquely Scottish celebration to audiences from Stockholm to Chicago in an eco-friendly international tour.   

This Burns season McGinn will be touring the UK, the US and Australia. Eighteen Burns Suppers and eleven cities - that’s a lot of air miles, but too much greenhouse gas. McGinn’s company, Serious Burns, has offset the CO2 generated by supporting the African Blackwood Conservation Project to plant sixty Mpingo trees. The dark timber of this tree is the single most important ingredient in a bagpipe chanter. 

Modeled on a poetry slam, McGinn’s Burns Supper concept, The Rant, invigorates a new generation of Burns Supper enthusiasts with competitive poetry recitation and performance. Clad in identical T-Shirts branded ‘My ♥ Belongs to Rabbie,’ the first competitors went head to head at the debut Rant in St. Andrews Bar, New York City on in 2006. McGinn opened the evening by explaining the importance of Burns and then, in a noisy rendition of the ‘address,’ polished off a large haggis in the middle of the cheering bar. New York was hooked and The Rant was off and running.

In addition to creating The Rant, McGinn has written The Ultimate Burns Supper Book, a witty and irreverent guide to the menus, websites, lure and lore of Burns Suppers.  McGinn’s world tour is sure to make the first green Burns Season a memorable one.  

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

Clark McGinn’s Tour Schedule 2007/2008— 15 Nov, New York; 5 Jan, Harrow; 16 Jan, Stockholm; 17 Jan, Helsinki; 18 Jan, Grosvenor House London; 19 Jan, Douglas; 24 Jan, Birmingham (lunch); 24 Jan, London (dinner); 25 Jan, Nottingham; 26 Jan, London; 30 Jan, Stockholm; 1 Feb, Caledonian Club, London; 7 Feb, Sydney, Australia; 13 Feb, Los Angeles, CA; 15 Feb, Houston, TX; 16 Feb, Chicago, IL; 22 Feb, Washington DC; 25 Feb, Houston, TX

Author profile — Clark McGinn was born in Ayr and has been the speaker at Burns Suppers for 30 years. He has led the revelry at Suppers across Britain, Europe and the States, usually with a dram of whisky in hand. While at Glasgow University he founded the World Student Debating Competition and passed enough exams to become a banker, where his debating skills came in handy. He is available for pre-Burns Night interviews.

Luath Press are also the publishers of John Cairney who is author of ten books to date including The Man Who Played Robert Burns, On the Trail of Robert Burns and The Luath Burns Companion. He has played Burns, along with other characters, in a multitude of professional productions on stage, radio, television and film. Cairney now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Clark McGinn and John Cairney will not be in Scotland for this year’s Burns Night. Please contact them via the details below.

Trade order hotline — please call HarperCollins Book Distribution Centre on 0870 787 1730.

Mail order — please call Luath Direct on 0131 225 4326 [24 hours] (fax 0131 225 4324)

ISBN — The Ultimate Burns Supper Book by Clark McGinn, ISBN 1 905222 60 0 PB £7.99; The Luath Burns Companion by John Cairney ISBN 1 906307 29 6 New Ed. PB £8.99; On the trail of Robert Burns by John Cairney, ISBN 0 946487 51 0 PB £7.99; Immortal Memories by John Cairney, ISBN 1 84282 009 5 HB £20.00

For information, interviews, review copy requests, competitions or reader offers please contact Angela Audretsch at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 0131 225 4326.