‘Of love and magic – I put a spell on you’: Scottish author John Burnside dies

Scottish author John Burnside died on Wednesday at the age of 69 after an illness, his publisher Jonathan Cape said.

With books like this Lies About My Father, Something like luck, What Light Is There? – About the Beauty of the Present Moment or On Love and Magic – I Put a Spell on You Burnside has also been successful in Germany. He writes poetry and has won several awards, including the TS Eliot Prize and the David Cohen Prize for his life’s work. In 2011, he also received the Petrarch Prize, which is given in Germany.

Publishing director Hannah Westland said Burnside had the ability to sense and describe both the wonders of the natural world and the everyday miracles. “His work is mysterious but never mystical, quite the opposite. He takes something strange and turns it into something meaningful. Reading it is like a bolt of lightning in the dark.”

“Lies About My Father”

The writer’s life was filled with deep personal struggles, his publisher wrote of Burnside. These were largely shaped by his experience as the son of an alcoholic father. Burnside had this Lies About My Father and Like everyone else describe.

The focus of his work, the publisher goes on to say, is often the irrational. “I’m more interested in the irrational than anything else: sometimes it’s very dangerous, but it can also be very beautiful,” Burnside says.

John Burnside was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1955. After studying English and European Literature at Cambridge, he also spent several years in the computer industry as an analyst and software engineer.