The Warld’s Ill Divided
The works of Mary Brooksbank, comprising Sidlaw Breezes and No Sae Lang Syne: A Tale of This City, are returning to print in 2026 through a project led by Soutar Publications and enabled by a grant from the Scottish Book Trust.
This website is a work-in-progress and will soon be updated with more information about how you can pre-order your copy. In the meantime, join our mailing list for updates.
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Who was Mary Brooksbank?
Mary Brooksbank (née Soutar, 1897-1978) was a writer, political activist, singer and tradition bearer. She began work in Dundee’s jute mills in her early teens, where she soon recognised a world ill-divided, and throughout her life remained committed to activism to improve the lives of those in her community. Brooksbank was celebrated widely during the Scottish Folk Revival in the mid-20th century, and after her death became the only woman to feature on the Scottish Parliament’s Canongate Wall with an extract from her ‘Jute Mill Song’. She was the author of a poetry and song collection, Sidlaw Breezes, and an autobiography, No Sae Lang Syne: A Tale of This City. Brooksbank’s voice is an important one in the Scottish literary and folk traditions, and her autobiography is a unique representation of urban working women’s experience in the 20th century. Despite her songs’ continued importance in the Scots folk tradition, and sustained interest in Brooksbank and her life, both of her books have been out of print and nearly impossible to get hold of for decades.
“We’re really happy to have the support of the Scots Language Publication Fund to republish Sidlaw Breezes and No Sae Lang Syne. Mary Brooksbank’s work is very relevant at the moment, and we are excited for people to be able to get to know her writing more deeply or discover it for the first time and be inspired by her.”
Who is Soutar Publications?
Soutar Publications is a Dundee-based collective established in 2023 to help continue Mary Brooksbank’s legacy. Originally the Mary Brooksbank Publishing Collective, we adopted the name Soutar Publications to acknowledge and recognise Mary’s wider family links.
We were delighted to be supported by the Scots Language Publication Grant in 2024.
As of 2026, our collective includes Siobhan Tolland, Connor Beaton, Emily Robinson, Ruth Forbes, Erin Farley and Ruth Ewen.
For more information, contact info@marybrooksbank.scot.